2025 Oscar Predictions: Best Supporting Actor
As with leading men, the winner of Best Supporting Actor at the Oscars is usually one of the more seasoned competitors. Of the 88 winners to date, only four Best Supporting Actor champs were in their 20s and just 15 were thirtysomething, including 2021 champ Daniel Kaluuya (“Judas and the Messiah”). The 2024 winner, Robert Downey, Jr., was 58 when he picked up his prize for “Oppenheimer.” He joined 16 previous winners who were in their 50s when they took home the trophy. (Scroll down for the most up-to-date 2025 Oscar predictions for Best Supporting Actor.)
Eleven more men were in their 60s when they won Best Supporting Actor at the Academy Awards. For eight fellows, it took till they were in their 70s to win while two (George Burns for “The Sunshine Boys” and Christopher Plummer for “Beginners”) were north of 80 when they took home their only Oscars.
At the 2019 Academy Awards, Mahershala Ali won “Green Book.” He had prevailed in this same category just two years earlier for “Moonlight.” He was the 31st (and 29th) winner of this award to be in his 40s. Sam Rockwell, who won in 2018 for “Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri” was the 30th, and was just eight months shy of turning 50.
Ali is one of a lucky seven actors to have won this category twice. He joins Michael Caine (“Hannah and Her Sisters,” “The Cider House Rules”), Melvyn Douglas (“Hud,” “Being There”), Anthony Quinn (“Viva Zapata!,” “Lust for Life”), Jason Robards (“All the President’s Men,” “Julia”), Peter Ustinov (“Spartacus,” “Topkapi”), and Christoph Waltz (“Inglourious Basterds,” “Django Unchained”).
Walter Brennan won a record three times: “Come and Get It,” “Kentucky,” and “The Westerner.” He also holds the joint record for most nominations in this category (four) with Jeff Bridges, Robert Duvall, Arthur Kennedy, Jack Nicholson, Al Pacino, Claude Rains, and Mark Ruffalo.
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Please note: To read full descriptions of each film, check out our 2025 Oscars Best Picture predictions. Category placement remains in question for several of these contenders who could be positioned in Best Actor.
UPDATED: July 11, 2024
LEADING CONTENDERS
Kieran Culkin, “A Real Pain” (Searchlight)
Willem Dafoe, “Nosferatu” (Focus Features/Universal Pictures)
Harris Dickinson, “Blitz” (Apple TV+)
Samuel L. Jackson, “The Piano Lesson” (Netflix)
John Lithgow, “Conclave” (Focus Features)
Clarence Maclin, “Sing Sing” (A24)
Paul Raci, “Sing Sing” (A24)
Stanley Tucci, “Conclave” (Focus Features)
Denzel Washington, “Gladiator II” (Paramount Pictures)
STRONG CONTENDERS
Stephen Graham, “Blitz” (Apple TV+)
Corey Hawkins, “The Piano Lesson” (Netflix)
Elliott Heffernan, “Blitz” (Apple TV+)
Stephen McKinley Henderson, “Civil War” (A24)
Brian Tyree Henry, “The Fire Inside” (Amazon MGM Studios)
Pedro Pascal, “Gladiator II” (Paramount Pictures)
Adam Pearson, “A Different Man” (A24)
J.K. Simmons, “Juror #2” (Warner Bros.)
POSSIBLE CONTENDERS
Yura Borisov, “Anora” (Neon)
Austin Butler, “Dune: Part Two” (Warner Bros.)
Willem Dafoe, “Kinds of Kindness” (Searchlight)
Mark Eydelshteyn, “Anora” (Neon)
Mike Faist, “Challengers” (Amazon MGM Studios/Warner Bros.)
Tom Hardy, “The Bikeriders” (Focus Features/Universal Pictures)
Wagner Moura, “Civil War” (A24)
Josh O’Connor, “Challengers” (Amazon MGM Studios/Warner Bros.)
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