GOLD DIGGER
WITH just over a week to go till the 2020 Oscars on Feb. 9, the front-runners are now miles ahead — or kilometers for the European nominees. Most of the predictive industry awards — Screen Actors Guild (SAG), Producers Guild and Directors Guild — have been handed out, and they’ve largely fallen in line with this month’s Golden Globes. So, it’s time to place yer bets! This edition of Gold Digger, our weekly look at the bout to be the best, checks out the five Best Actor nominees. 1. Joaquin Phoenix (—)
The “Joker” star, who plays deranged clown-for-hire Arthur Fleck, has led the pack since the Oscars race began, but was buoyed even more by his film picking up 11 nods, the most of any movie. While I have a hunch it will lose in 10 of those categories, Phoenix will win his. So far, the four-time nominee has taken home the Golden Globe for best actor in a motion picture — drama, the SAG Award for best actor and Critics Choice Award for best actor. The big one is SAG, however, having correctly predicted the Oscar winner nine of the past 10 times. The “Joker” will have the last laugh. 2. Leonardo DiCaprio (—)
And then there’s Leo. “Once Upon a Time in … Hollywood” was whistling a happy tune as the Oscars front-runner for months, until, like “The Irishman,” it suddenly wasn’t. DiCaprio, who plays a washed-up TV star, seems to have fallen victim to the growing lack of enthusiasm for his movie. But the academy loves the guy — he’s been nominated six times, winning for “The Revenant” in 2016 — and, on the whole, voters have preferred his flick to Netflix’s “Marriage Story.” If there’s an upset, it’s Leo. 3. Adam Driver (—)
“Marriage Story” has turned out to be a hugely divisive movie, as Netflix films often are, and voters aren’t prepared to give either of its leads a top prize for their honest, no-frills work. In the drama, Driver plays an emerging theater director going through a messy divorce, and his performance has picked up a pile of critic group awards, but he lost out on the vital SAG and Golden Globe trophies. For an Oscar newbie, there’s no coming back from that. 4. Antonio Banderas (—) Antonio Banderas is brilliant in Pedro Almodóvar’s best international film nominee, “Pain and Glory.” But you can bet that most of those lazy academy members won’t even watch it. Banderas, playing a fictionalized version of Almodóvar, is nominated for his first Oscar and will go home empty-handed. 5. Jonathan Pryce (—) It’s a nope for the pope. Pryce, who plays Pope Francis in “The Two Popes,” Netflix’s papal bromance, is pretty lucky to be nominated in a year with plenty of superb leading men. (I’m still furious George MacKay was left out for his work in “1917.”) Pryce isn’t even as good here as co-star Anthony Hopkins as Pope Benedict, who will more than likely lose Best Supporting Actor to Brad Pitt (“Once Upon a Time in . . . Hollywood.”)