Oscar Volley: Best Actor - locked and loaded?

Lynn Lee and Ben Miller discuss the Best Actor race.

Ralph Fiennes in CONCLAVE. Will it *finally* be his time?

LYNN: First, a double disclaimer: 1. I haven’t yet seen some of the likely Oscar contenders this year, including in this category.  2. I’m also generally pretty meh on this year’s contenders (and movies) as a whole, especially compared with last year’s embarrassment of riches.  This also extends to the best actor category, which was overflowing with worthy candidates last year, whereas this year I’m not sure I could even pick a top five I have strong feelings about, at least based on what I've seen so far.  

All that said, my one bright hope for this season is that Ralph Fiennes finally gets his Oscar...

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Best Actor in the 80s: An Alternative Oscar History

by Cláudio Alves

Your eyes don't deceive you. At long last, AMPAs and I can find common ground and award the same performance. Well, two out of ten. It's something!

This November, we've been celebrating the 1980s with a series of throwback articles. To contribute and inspired by Nathaniel's top tens, I decided to share my alternative Oscar ballots, the idealized lineups that would have come to pass in a world where my taste prevailed over the Academy's. We've already looked at Best Actress, Supporting Actress, and Supporting Actor, so now it's time for the leading men. As always, I welcome all recommendations – it's been a great pleasure to read all your own ideal lineups and jot down films to watch in the future. To repeat some critical details, these lists include my personal Oscar lineup according to the eligibility established by the Academy. There are also honorable mentions, ineligible gems, and some notable titles I already have on my watchlist…

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An Early Look at the Best Actor Oscar Race

by Eric Blume

A COMPLETE UNKNOWN remains unseen, but Chalamet is already a major Best Actor contender.

I recently posted about the Best Director Oscar race, and how the same five men seem to be on almost every prognosticator list in town.

A similar thing seems to be happening in the Best Actor Oscar race as well.  Almost anywhere you go, these five names seem to fill everyone's list...

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Happy 50, Leonardo DiCaprio!

by Cláudio Alves

ONCE UPON A TIME… IN HOLLYWOOD earned DiCaprio his seventh and, to this day, final Oscar nomination. Do you think he’ll be back in the race anytime soon?

Former teenage heartthrob turned Academy Award-winning actor Leonardo DiCaprio just hit the half-century mark. Happy birthday to the superstar who has been entertaining audiences since his youth and has, in recent years, expanded his work to producing movies and fighting the good fight in the name of our crumbling environment. Over time, many of his performances and most iconic movies have been explored at The Film Experience by various team members. It seems logical to revisit some of those posts, like we did to celebrate Jessica Lange's 75th birthday and Maggie Smith's passing. It's time to go down the blogging rabbit hole and share some love for the man immortalized on screen through roles like Shakespeare's Romeo, Jack Dawson, a handful of Scorsese leads, and more – the list goes on and on…

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Joaquin Phoenix @ 50: An Alternative Oscar History

by Cláudio Alves

Joaquin Phoenix's last great performance was in C'MON C'MON.

Do you have your own dream Oscar ballots lying around? I've been doing them for ages, probably since first finding The Film Experience and becoming entranced by Nathaniel's Film Bitch Awards. In recent years, the mountains of notebooks finally came to be formally digitized, starting with the long process of creating Letterboxd lists out of every Oscar eligibility rulebook, going back to 1927. This way, I was able to make a massive Excel spreadsheet with ballots for every year, following AMPAS guidelines. Oh well, much ado about nothing. The only reason I'm bringing this up is to contextualize the bizarre birthday post in store for today, when Joaquin Phoenix celebrates his mid-century mark. 

As the Todd Haynes fiasco and the disappointing Joker diptych have made Joaquin Phoenix something of a sore subject, let's go back to happier times and better movies. Indeed, let me present an alternative Oscar history. The thespian remains a winner but under very different circumstances…

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