With December right around the corner, it’s time for the Oscar Warrior to dust off his special awards season coat and start looking at some of the contenders for the 87th Annual Academy Awards, to be awarded on February 22, 2015.
First off, I’m going to explore some of the actors who have never received Oscar attention i.e. need been nominated. Some of them are veterans who have been making movies for decades who finally might be recognized by the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences.
This year, it doesn’t look like we’ll get a break-out lead actress as in past years with the likes of Quvenzhané Wallis, Keira Castle-Hughes, Catalina Sandino Moreno or Jennifer Lawrence, who were nominated more or less for their first major film roles. Two years after being nominated for the Sundance film Winter’s Bone, Lawrence won for David O. Russell’s Silver Linings Playbook. (Two of the other three actresses haven’t done anything as significant as their debuts, while Wallis stars in the upcoming Annie.) Probably the closest thing we have this year is Belle’s Gugu Mbatha-Raw or Unbroken‘s Jack O’Connell, although they’re both going up against a lot of surer things.
So in the gallery below, I take a look at 19 previously-unnominated actors who have made a mark this year giving them a better chance at getting into the 20 acting slots at the Academy Awards. In some cases, it’s wishful thinking but others have a real shot at not only getting Oscar nominations, but actually winning. That’s said with the caveat that all of them are likely to be going up against past nominees, who already have proven their popularity among Academy voters.
(Note: You can click on Full Screen in order to read the full text without scrolling.)
Next up, we’ll look at all the directors, new and old, vying for the five slots in this year’s Best Director race at the Academy Awards.
Oscar Warrior The New Breed
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Jennifer Aniston - Cake
The winner of an Emmy and a Golden Globe for her role as Rachel on “Friends” has never been taken seriously as a film actress, but her dramatic role in Daniel Barnz’ Cake, playing a woman suffering from constant pain, may change that.
Chances: Good
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Patricia Arquette - Boyhood
We’ve gotten used to previous nominee Ethan Hawke delivering some amazing performances in Richard Linklater movies, but anyone who’s ever underestimated this member of the acting Arquettes over the years gets to see how great she’s been over the past 12 years in Linklater’s time-spanning Boyhood.
Chances: Great!
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Emily Blunt - Into the Woods
It’s surprising this British actress, who has four Golden Globe nominations under her belt, has yet to be nominated for an Oscar. She’s played many memorable roles that have been worthy from My Summer of Love to The Devil Wears Prada, Your Sister’s Sister and more, and in Rob Marshall’s Into the Woods, we learn her talents include singing as she stands out amongst the likes of regular nominee Meryl Streep and Anna Kendrick. (And while we’re at it, Blunt’s co-star and future late night host James Corden is quite good, but he’s going against tougher competition.)
Chances: Slim
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Chadwick Boseman - Get On Up
In any other year, Boseman’s portrayal of James Brown in Get On Up would be an Oscar frontrunner, much like Jamie Foxx’s Oscar-winning take on Ray Charles, but this biopic hasn’t done nearly as well and Boseman’s performance has been overshadowed by a number of other portrayals of real people by Oscar virgins.
Chances: Slim
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Steve Carell - Foxcatcher
Many people felt that the star of “The Office” and other comedies should have been nominated for his performance in Little Miss Sunshine, but he was ignored in favor of that year’s Oscar winner Alan Arkin. Playing eccentric billionaire John du Pont in Bennett Miller’s Foxcatcher has gotten everyone talking and if he were being pushed for supporting, he’d stand a much better chance of winning an Oscar.
Chances: Great!
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Benedict Cumberbatch - The Imitation Game
After winning an Emmy earlier this year, the British actor, who played Kahn in Star Trek Into Darkness, takes on the role of WWII Enigma code-cracker Alan Turing in The Imitation Game and gives a well-rounded performance that makes this historical spy thriller so much more memorable than it might have been.
Chances: Great!
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Carmen Ejogo - Selma
When people finally get to see Ava DuVernay’s Selma in December, they should be impressed by Ejogo’s performance playing Martin Luther King Jr.’s wife Coretta Scott and they may be surprised that she’s been acting for nearly 30 years, her most recent appearance being the summer sequel The Purge: Anarchy.
Chances: Very Good
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John Goodman - The Gambler
The fact that this beloved hard-working actor has never been nominated for an Oscar after so many years is a crime, especially after his role in last year’s Inside Llewyn Davis and the year before in Flight and Argo.The actor’s more than due and though his role as a loan shark in Mark Wahlberg’s The Gambler may not get him that nomination, it will add to his impressive filmography.
Chances: Slim to Good
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Oscar Isaac - A Most Violent Year
Another veteran actor who has been taking on more lead roles, most notably in last year’s Inside Llewyn Davis. He’s fantastic in J.C. Chandor’s A Most Violent Year as a New York heating oil mogul caught up in an industry being run by criminals. He probably won’t get nominated but big blockbusters like Star Wars and X-Men: Apocalypse should raise his profile for the future. The Lead Actor category is tough this year, however.
Chances: Slim
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Felicity Jones - The Theory of Everything
Having been on British television since she was a teenager, Ms. Jones has been impressing those in the industry with roles in Drake Doremus’ Like Crazy and Ralph Fiennes’ The Invisible Woman. Her performance as Mrs. Stephen Hawking in The Theory of Everything is getting even more attention and she brings as much to the movie as Eddie Redmayne does as Hawking.
Chances: Very Good
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Michael Keaton - Birman
Probably one of the more fascinating comebacks of the year, Michael Keaton has been making movies for nearly three decades, but Alejandro Inarritu’s Birdman gives him the first role where he’s being taken seriously as a frontrunner in the Lead Actor category.
Chances: Great!
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Guru Mbatha-Raw - Belle
Probably the closest we’ll come this year to a breakout actress like some of the ones we mentioned above is yet another British actress who really showed her stuff as the title character in the period drama Belle, plus she’s also pretty amazing in Gina Blythewood-Prince’s Beyond the Lights. Both films have been fairly low-key which might make it hard for her to compete against the veteran actresses.
Chances: Slim to Good
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Jack O'Connell - Unbroken
One of the actors who has been making his presence known this year on these shores is this former teen actor best known in the UK for his stint on “Skins.” His performance in the festival favorites Starred Up and ’71 (out next year) are leading up to his role in Angelina Jolie’s Unbroken, playing Olympic medalist-turned-POW Louis Zamperini, which should make him a household name.
Chances: Good
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David Oyelowo - Selma
A lot of British actors are finally being recognized this year and none are more deserving than Oyelowo for his portrayal of Martin Luther King, Jr. in Ava DuVernay’s Selma, which follows other strong performances in Lee Daniel’s The Butler last year and others. (He also has a tiny role in Christopher Nolan’s Interstellar and a larger one in J.C. Chandor’s A Most Violent Year.)
Chances: Very Good to Great
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Rosamund Pike - Gone Girl
Another hard-working British actress who has done everything from Bond to Pride and Prejudice to the video game movie Doom. She was fantastic in Barney’s Version and An Education a few years back, but her role as “Amazing Amy” in David Fincher’s Gone Girl is finally getting her the deserved recognition among a larger audience.
Chances: Good to Very Good
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Eddie Redmayne - The Theory of Everything
Eddie Redmayne comes from the same hard-working British acting school as Benedict Cumberbatch and Rosamund Pike, but has never really gotten much attention, even with his role in Les Miserables a few years back. His portrayal of Professor Stephen Hawking is changing that quickly as everyone who sees Redmayne’s amazing transformation is impressed.
Chances: Great!
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J.K. Simmons - Whiplash
A popular character actor who has appeared in literally hundreds of movies and television shows over the years, Simmons has never played a character like Terrence Fletcher in Damien Chazelle’s Whiplash, who bullies and plays mind games with Miles Teller as a young jazz drummer.
Chances: Great!
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Emma Stone - Birdman
Stone has certainly established herself in the industry with a wide variety of different movies both big and small, but her supporting role playing Michael Keaton’s daughter in Birdman lets her show off her dramatic chops more than any other role.
Chances: Good
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Channing Tatum - Foxcatcher
While Steve Carell is getting a lot of the attention for his performance in Bennett Miller’s Foxcatcher, Tatum has quietly become an A-list actor and a strong box office draw who is doing something more dramatic than anything he’s done in some time. The Lead Actor category is already overcrowded, however.
Chances: Slim
