Welcome to the lead actor race for 2025. With the fall film festival season now in the distance and a few potential contenders still to debut on the horizon, it’s time for our first look at the battle for Best Actor.
For the first time in years, Best Actor is actually looking like an embarrassment of riches. Praise be. After the universal praise for One Battle After Another, Leonardo DiCaprio jumps straight to the front of the pack. After finally snatching his first Oscar in 2015 for The Revenant, is it time to give DiCaprio his second ten years later?
At this point last year, Timothée Chalamet was sitting in pole position for his as-yet-unseen turn in A Complete Unknown. Rather ironically, he finds himself in the same situation this year as we await to see his work in Marty Supreme. Much like A Complete Unknown, the film shunned festival season and will similarly debut in December. Chalamet likely came in second place for Best Actor last year, so maybe this will finally be his turn.
While Springsteen: Deliver Me From Nowhere hasn’t received the strongest early reviews, Jeremy Allen White’s performance has been strongly lauded, so he should be able to ride to his first Oscar nomination. The Secret Agent feels like it could be this year’s I’m Still Here, especially now that Brazil has officially selected it as their Best International Feature Film submission. That bodes well for Cannes Best Actor winner Wagner Moura, who undeniably deserves to be nominated.
That leaves that fifth spot open to all sorts of possibilities. George Clooney (Jay Kelly) seems like a strong bet. It would be rather odd to see Sinners sweep the nominations, but Michael B. Jordan isn’t one of them, especially for delivering not one but two performances in the same film. Lee Byung-hun is masterful in No Other Choice. So is Joel Edgerton in Train Dreams. Dwayne Johnson (The Smashing Machine) is likely going to campaign like nobody’s business. Daniel Day-Lewis’s (Anemone) return from retirement will surely grab plenty of attention. I told you they are spoilt for choice this season.
BEST ACTOR PREDICTIONS:
1. Leonardo DiCaprio – One Battle After Another (Warner Bros.)
2. Timothée Chalamet – Marty Supreme (A24)
3. Wagner Moura – The Secret Agent (NEON)
4. Jeremy Allen White – Springsteen: Deliver Me From Nowhere (20th Century Studios)
5. George Clooney – Jay Kelly (Netflix)
IN CONTENTION
Will Arnett – Is This Thing On? (Searchlight Pictures)
Russell Crowe – Nuremberg (Sony Pictures Classics)
Daniel Day-Lewis – Anemone (Focus Features)
Joel Edgerton – Train Dreams (Netflix)
Ethan Hawke – Blue Moon (Sony Pictures Classics)
Colin Farrell – Ballad of a Small Player (Netflix)
Brendan Fraser – Rental Family (Searchlight Pictures)
Hugh Jackman – Song Sung Blue (Focus Features)
Oscar Isaac – Frankenstein (Netflix)
Dwayne Johnson – The Smashing Machine (A24)
Michael B. Jordan – Sinners (Warner Bros.)
Lee Byung-hun – No Other Choice (NEON)
Jesse Plemons – Bugonia (Focus Features)