I‘ve had a poll on the homepage for a little while now asking who you think will win Best Actor at the Oscars. I posted the question shortly after Jean Dujardin (The Artist) won at the Screen Actors Guild Awards, which I took as a sign that all of Hollywood was ready to show support for The Artist. That same night Viola Davis won for The Help, which would appear to give her the edge heading into the Oscars, but with George Clooney and Meryl Streep as the runners-up in both races can anyone say for sure who will win?
Looking over the major categories at this year’s Oscars I can’t help but get the feeling the Best Actor and Actress races are the two races that seem poised for a surprise. Christopher Plummer (Beginners) looks like he has Supporting Actor locked up. Octavia Spencer (The Help) has had Supporting Actress locked up for quite some time. And the support for The Artist leads me to believe the film will win Best Picture and Michel Hazanavicius will win Best Director. Of course, if you don’t think those last two things will come true then I don’t think we can count on much of anything at this year’s Oscars and as we’ve learned in the past, these things are rather predictable.
This is why the race for the two lead actor categories offer the main intrigue. Dujardin is a newcomer and not to mention French, to see Clooney actually take home the Oscar wouldn’t be too much of a surprise, and if the poll I placed on the homepage is any indication it wouldn’t surprise others either as Dujardin holds only a slight 20 vote lead over Clooney.
For Best Actress, would anyone really be all that surprised to see Streep beat Davis? No. My guess is many are counting on that to happen despite the fact 12 out of the 17 years the SAG Awards have been held the Best Actress winner has gone on to win the Oscar. A 70% chance isn’t a 100% chance, but it makes for pretty good odds. The men’s race isn’t quite as accurate being 11 for 17, but the last four years have matched up exactly and if you’re placing bets you like Dujardin’s 64% chance over Clooney’s 36% chance.
And with that, I have included the poll that has been running on the homepage recently and added a new poll with the Best Actress nominees… take your pick. I will do these polls again a couple days before the Oscars, which take place on February 26, but I figured it wouldn’t hurt to take an early temperature from the audience. For all of my predictions in the top 21 categories you can click here.
NOTE: If you already voted in the homepage poll for Best Actor then your vote has been recorded and only the results will show.
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