Oscar Blitz 2025 – Supporting Actor (VIDEO)

There are some years where the Academy Awards are just downright boring when it comes to the so-called “major” categories. Best Picture, Best Director, the two Screenplay fields, and all four Acting contests are susceptible to this disappointment. During the very low era during and immediately following the COVID pandemic, we saw this far too often. A film like Nomadland was the consensus choice before nominations were even announced, and there was no theatrical model available so that other entries could challenge it, so we ended up with a winner so obvious that we didn’t even bother with the tradition of ending the ceremony with the top prize, instead opting for Best Actor because a) it was competitive, and b) a lot of people were hoping for a posthumous honor for Chadwick Boseman. That latter sentiment was so strong that eventual winner Anthony Hopkins didn’t even show up, as even he thought Boseman should have won, and we wound up with the most depressing, anticlimactic ceremony ever.

But what do you do when the result is all but a given, yet at the same time you have one of the strongest fields in recent memory? That’s the conundrum with this year’s Supporting Actor contest. Even before we get the undercard results from the likes of SAG, Independent Spirt, BAFTA, or Critics’ Choice, I think we all know who the overwhelming favorite is. And it’s a shame, really, not because the presumptive winner doesn’t deserve it. He very much does. It’s just kind of sad that such a great lineup will likely be relegated as historical footnotes, which shortchanges how great they all were.

Even outside of our main five, you could have picked any number of outstanding performances to fill out this list. You’d probably have to go back to the 2013 ceremony (where Christoph Waltz won out over Alan Arkin, Robert De Niro, Philip Seymour Hoffman, and Tommy Lee Jones) to find a Supporting Actor competition so well stacked from top to bottom. Contrast that with the first pandemic ceremony, where Daniel Kaluuya won, but only because the Academy took the very odd step of putting him and LaKeith Stanfiled – the two title characters in their film – in this contest rather than having one compete for Supporting while the other went for Best Actor. It guaranteed one of them would win, but it required some serious shenanigans.

But seriously, this year’s batch is a potential Murderer’s Row of great turns, and the line of those left off could fill an entirely separate category three times over. I love all five of these nominated performances, but I wouldn’t have batted an eye if you included any of the following:

Clarence “Divine Eye” Maclin and/or Paul Raci – Sing Sing
Adam Pearson – A Different Man
Stanley Tucci and/or John Lithgow – Conclave
John Magaro – September 5
Samuel L. Jackson – The Piano Lesson
Selton Mello – I’m Still Here
Willem Dafoe – Nosferatu
Egill Ólafsson – Touch
Cory Michael Smith – Saturday Night
Nicolas Cage – Longlegs
Jesse Plemons – Civil War (you could also argue he deserved a Best Actor nod for Kinds of Kindness)
Austin Butler – Dune: Part Two
Tom Hardy – The Bikeriders

That’s how deep the field is, and yet we still have a likely landslide winner. The year of our Ford 2024 was far from the strongest in cinema history, but it did contain some of the most captivating and unique supporting performances ever. So with that in mind, let’s take a breath and enter the weekend with a nice, easy breakdown, and our first analysis video of the season, shall we? I think we’ve earned it.

This year’s nominees for Best Supporting Actor are… in the video, so watch it and stuff! Also smash that “Like” button, and don’t forget to subsc–

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As I said, I think it’s pretty clear who our winner will be, and once we have more results come in, it should solidify it. But honest to God, I will be happy for whoever takes home the gold. They all deserve it. I’d even be thrilled with the ultra rare tie (it’s never happened in this category, and has only happened six times in history, most recently in 2013 when Zero Dark Thirty and Skyfall tied in the now-defunct Sound Editing race).

My Rankings:
Are in the video.

Who do you think should win? Vote now in the poll below!

Up next, the Blitz is off for the next couple days, but that doesn’t mean I stop with the content. I’ve got more reviews to clear out of my backlog, plus the February edition of TFINYW to get done. Come Monday, we’re back in action with the category I’m most professionally qualified to judge, as I’ve spent more than a decade doing similar work. It’s Film Editing!

Join the conversation in the comments below! Which performance was your favorite? What makes for a truly memorable supporting turn? How in God’s name did Jeremy Strong make me actually feel sorry for someone as evil as Roy Cohn? Let me know! And remember, you can follow me on Twitter (fuck “X”) as well as Bluesky, and subscribe to my YouTube channel for even more content, and check out the entire BTRP Media Network at btrpmedia.com!