Oscar Talk: Best Actor in a Supporting Role

Back again are the Oscars, and with them my look into what I think will and what I want to win each award. With exactly a month until the ceremony, here are the nine categories I feel deserve some looking into during the coming weeks:

Best Picture

Best Director

Best Actor in a Leading Role

Best Actress in a Leading Role

Best Actor in a Supporting Role

Best Actress in a Supporting Role

Best Original Screenplay

Best Adapted Screenplay

Best Original Song

Now, here are my thoughts on this year's nominees for Best Actor in a Supporting Role:

Best Actor in a Supporting Role -

Richard Jenkins - The Shape of Water

Sam Rockwell - Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri

Woody Harrelson - Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri

Christopher Plummer - All the Money in the World

Willem Dafoe - The Florida Project

Can I instead talk about the actors I wish were nominated for this category? Armie Hammer for Call Me By Your Name, Jason Mitchell and Garrett Hedlund for Mudbound, Ray Romano for The Big Sick and Benny Safdie for Good Time all give performances that match (and/or beat) the actors on this list. Not to discredit them, because it was a ridiculously good year for film, but I just have to say that some of them really do deserve to be here.

Referring to the actual nominees, however, I do think there are some clear frontrunners and some clear standouts. Woody Harrelson is a big piece of the huge ensemble cast in the raging storm that is Three Billboards, so his inclusion here makes sense. It is only undercut by the fact that his co-star Sam Rockwell has swept almost all of the preceding award shows thus far and is a very safe bet to win Oscar gold. Christopher Plummer did perform a huge feat by taking over Kevin Spacey's role as J. Paul Getty in All the Money in the World with less than a month left until release, but the performance itself was quite underwhelming. My favorites come down to Richard Jenkins and Willem Dafoe. Both actors are known primarily for character work and low-key supporting roles, but this year they both shined in their respective movies. Of course, I had to include the darling Brooklynn Prince in Dafoe's photo because she was the real star of The Florida Project.