Twitter
Advertisement

Oscars 2015: Prediction for Best Actor

Eddie Redmayne and Michael Keaton will go to head to head in this category, the only acting category one cannot predict a clear winner for. American Sniper's Bradley Cooper is turning out to be the surprise underdog who could possibly open up this race. Selma's David Oyelwo would have made this a more interesting mix.

Latest News
article-main
FacebookTwitterWhatsappLinkedin

The best actor category at the Oscars has been the only acting category that has given cause for some deliberation. The categories of best actress as well as best supporting actor and actress seem to have clear winners. Since the beginning of awards season, this category has been a two horse race between the up and coming Eddie Redmayne and veteran Michael Keaton. But American Sniper's Bradley Cooper is the surprise underdog in this race who could quietly to sneak up and cause an upset.

While the Academy's big snub in this category has been to Selma's David Oyelwo, one must also ask why we don't see Jake Gyllenhal (Nightcrawler), Ralph Fiennes (The Grand Budapest Hotel) and Timothy Spall (Mr. Turner) here.

The nominees in the best category reflect the Academy's partiality to stories of redemption and reinvention, both on screen and off it. Here is a look at the nominees—

Michael Keaton — Birdman
Eddie Redmayne — The Theory of Everything
Steve Carell — Foxcatcher
Benedict Cumberbatch — The Imitation Game
Bradley Cooper — American Sniper


Michael Keaton

Michael Keaton plays washed out actor Riggan Thomson, best known for playing a superhero, who is looking to resuscitate his career and regain credibility by directing and starring in his own Broadway play. The meta nature of this character aside, Keaton delivers a fine performance as the overwrought, anxious and insecure Riggan who battles his own vanity and fallibility in a bid for recognition and acclaim. With the film's cinematography dictating every move its actors make, Keaton delivers more than just a measured performance. As Riggan, his performance is as intensely physical as he is emotional. This is perhaps expected from an actor playing an actor but it is immensely watchable nonetheless. He is one of the favourites to win in this award.

Keaton has won the Critics' Choice Award, Independent Spirit Awards and the Golden Globe for Best Actor in Comedy for this role. This is his first Oscar nomination.
 

Eddie Redmayne

The other favourite in this category is, of course, Redmayne's portrayal of Stephen Hawking. Redmayne's is the kind of performance that the Academy loves to recognise, a genius battling against the odds to achieve greatness. What also tips the scales in favour of Redmayne is his physical transformation on screen from being diagnosed with a progressive motor neuron disease to having the disease slowly take over his body. The performance is particularly impressive when you bear in mind that the scenes were not shot in sequence making it quite a task to maintain the arc of the physical changes over the 25 years that the film covers. What fails Redmayne is the film itself.

This is his first nomination. Redmayne has been sweeping the awards for this role with wins at the Golden Globes for Best Actor in a Drama, Screen Actors Guild Awards and the BAFTAs.
 

Steve Carell

In Foxcatcher, Carell plays multi-millionaire John du Pont who invites Olympic wrestlers Mark and Dave Schultz to coach and train wrestlers at his estate. Despite being well reviewed at the Cannes Film Festival, the comedian's foray into darker drama has gone largely unnoticed apart from nominations at the BAFTAs, the Golden Globes and the Screen Actor Guild Award. Carell is virtually unrecognisable as the quietly menacing du Pont and essays the complex character with skill. The hooplah around Keaton's comeback story seems to be drowning this performance out.

This is Carell's first nomination.


Benedict Cumberbatch

It's easy to jump to the conclusion that Cumberbatch as the brilliant mathematician Alan Turing is simply playing his character from Sherlock in a different era and setting. There is criticism that the film did not portray Turing as the affable man he really was and gave even lesser space to his active love life which the film portrays as non-existent. But within the film, as it stands, Cumberbatch still surprisingly manages to give us a different turn as the anti-social genius. His body language and mannerisms are often the anti-thesis to his Sherlock.  It's a solid performance and, yes, Sherlock can act. Now let's please give him a break from playing the genius.

This is his first nomination.


Bradley Cooper

Bradley Cooper has turned up in the best actor category for the third consecutive year. His nominations for Silver Linings Playbook and American Hustle have more to do with the success of the films than his own performance in them. American Sniper, however, wakes you up to the good actor that Cooper can be. The role does not immediately fall in his comfort zone, but as Chris Kyle, a military marksman dealing with emotional toll that war takes on a soldier, Cooper gives his best performance yet.

The performance may not merit an Oscar but the Academy clearly loves Cooper. The film itself has been controversial for its portrayal of what critics have called a black and white portrayal of war in Iraq. Cooper's chances at a win depends on how well American Sniper itself does at the Oscars with the film slowly gaining ground in the run up to the awards. 

Our Prediction: Michael Keaton should take this one for the strongest performance among the nominees. The Academy could swing either way between Redmayne and Keaton.

Winner in 2014: Matthew McConaughey for Dallas Buyers Club

Find your daily dose of news & explainers in your WhatsApp. Stay updated, Stay informed-  Follow DNA on WhatsApp.
Advertisement

Live tv

Advertisement
Advertisement