Who's going to win Best Actor?
Despite buzz for Timothée Chalamet's Bob Dylan, Adrien Brody appears a safe bet to snag his second Best Actor prize
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- Patrick Cremona
It’s been more than 20 years since Adrien Brody became the youngest man to win a Best Actor Oscar for his memorably harrowing performance in The Pianist, a record which still stands to this day. And barring any major upsets, he now looks all but certain to add a second golden statuette to his collection at this year’s ceremony, for his monumental leading role in Brady Corbet’s epic drama The Brutalist.
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Adrien Brody in The Brutalist. A24
In László Tóth, Brody is responsible for bringing to life one of the most compelling big screen characters of the last decade, a role that offered him the opportunity to express the full gamut of human emotions across the film’s three-and-a-half hour runtime. Whether the architect is experiencing the brief euphoria of family reunion, suffering the throes of heroin addiction or portraying the tortured psyche of a man battling deep-rooted trauma and a rigged system, Brody is always convincing and magnetic in the role.
Despite a somewhat over-egged kerfuffle around the use of an AI post-production tool to correct his Hungarian accent in a tiny handful of scenes, he has consistently appeared as the clear frontrunner for pretty much the entire awards season, having won the top prize at virtually every precursor event, including the recent BAFTAs.
Interestingly, his closest competition appears to come from a man who would unseat him as the youngest ever winner: Timothée Chalamet. The 29-year-old actor’s performance as Bob Dylan in A Complete Unknown is certainly impressive – at his best he completely transforms himself into the folk singer-songwriter – and this kind of pitch-perfect impersonation of a well-known real-life figure is just the type the Academy has been known to honour in the past.
Timothée Chalamet in A Complete Unknown. 2024 Searchlight Pictures
As for the other contenders, it’s an interesting mix of performances. Sebastian Stan’s turn as Donald Trump is another that falls into the “skillful impersonation of a public figure” camp, but it’s a far more subtle interpretation than many of the actors who have previously tried their hand at the US President. Still, most people who have seen his performance in the brilliant A Different Man would agree that Stan has actually been nominated for the wrong film. But that's splitting hairs.
Sebastian Stan as Donald Trump and Jeremy Strong as Roy Cohn in The Apprentice. Apprentice Productions Ontario Inc. / Profile Productions 2 APS / Tailored Films Ltd. 2023
Meanwhile, the always charismatic Colman Domingo – nominated for Best Actor for the second consecutive year – and the reliably captivating Ralph Fiennes both turn in fine performances in Sing Sing and Conclave respectively, but neither appear to have built enough support to pose a serious threat to Brody.
Ralph Fiennes as Cardinal Lawrence in Conclave Black Bear UK
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Then, on the fringes of the picture, are snubs: the most startling omission from the list is undoubtedly Daniel Craig. The former James Bond star’s lead turn in Luca Guadagnino’s Queer is the finest dramatic work of his career, and exactly the kind of against-type role you’d have expected the Academy to lap up. Still, even if he had been nominated it would have been hard to argue a case for him over Brody – and The Brutalist star looks like being a very deserving winner indeed.
Authors
Patrick CremonaSenior Film Writer
Patrick Cremona is the Senior Film Writer at Radio Times, and looks after all the latest film releases both in cinemas and on streaming. He has been with the website since October 2019, and in that time has interviewed a host of big name stars and reviewed a diverse range of movies.
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