GOLD DIGGER
The race is heating up ahead of the Oscars on April 25. The Producers Guild just named “Nomadland” best picture, meaning it’s a shoo-in for the top prize. Sunday’s Screen Actors Guild Awards will cement the frontrunners in that arena. And one Oscar catego
Expectations were sky-high for Boseman’s final role — and they were exceeded, to say the least. The “Black Panther” star died in August of colon cancer at age 43, and filmed “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom” in the summer of 2019, three years after his diagnosis. For his thunderous performance as Levee, a trumpet player in 1920s Chicago with big dreams, Boseman has already won the Golden Globe for best actor in a drama and is nominated by a slew of other bodies, including the Screen Actors Guild, BAFTAs and many critics’ groups. He’d probably still win if he were alive, but the Oscars will want to honor a major talent gone too soon.
2. Anthony Hopkins (—)
A veteran of this category — at 83, he’s 20 years older than Gary Oldman — Hopkins hasn’t won an Oscar since he took home Best Actor for his legendary performance as Hannibal Lecter in “The Silence of the Lambs.” He’s been nominated five times since, including last year for his supporting role in “The Two Popes.” For playing a pop suffering from dementia in “The Father,” he’s won a fair few critics’ awards. But the usual rationale of awarding someone of Hopkins’ stature (a titanic performance in his later years) is undone by Boseman’s premature death. If Hopkins wins, it would probably lead to a Change.org petition.
3. Riz Ahmed (—)
It took awhile for “Sound of Metal” to jump into the Oscars conversation, but lately admiration for Ahmed’s turn as a rocker who loses his hearing has exploded. Viewers have become more accustomed to seeing the actor in action films such as “Nightcrawler,” “Rogue One: A Star Wars Story” and “Venom” over Oscar bait. Now, he’s beginning to bring the distinguished skill seen in TV’s “The Night Of ” to movies — and he’s been rewarded with Oscar, Golden Globe and BAFTA nods. Still, the only way he wins here is if there’s a shocking split of affections for Hopkins and Boseman.
4. Steven Yeun (▲ )
“Minari” is racing up awards-season pundits’ lists in all categories, since it managed Oscars nods for Best Picture, Actor, Supporting Actress, Director, Screenplay and Score. That means, across the board, voters love it. But Yeun, while terrific, isn’t the performance everybody is talking about. That would be Youn Yuh-jung as his mother-in-law who comes to his Arkansas farm from South Korea. Her chances for a winning night are much stronger than Yeun’s.
5. Gary Oldman ( )
Being a familiar face at an awards show isn’t always a plus. Example: Gary Oldman. Although he’s excellent as “Citizen Kane” screenwriter Herman Mankiewicz in “Mank,” there is an unshakable vibe of “Him again?” Oldman was nominated for 2011’s “Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy” and won in 2018 for his fat-suited Winston Churchill in “The Darkest Hour.” This time, it’s an honor just to be nominated. “Mank” is the mostnominated film this year, with 10 nods. But the black-and-white Netflix flick will lose most of them, including Best Actor.