14 Best Supporting Actor contenders for the 2023 Oscars

Clockwise from bottom left: The Fabelmans (Merie Weismiller Wallace/Universal Pictures), The Banshees Of Inisherin (Courtesy Searchlight Pictures), Breaking (Courtesy Bleecker Street), Everything Everywhere All At Once (Allyson Riggs)

We’re not quite at the point of awards season where the scent of freshly smelted Oscars is wafting through the air, but the race for those statuettes—and all the other prizes along that path—is well underway. Since the major film festivals have concluded, Hollywood has been screening and schmoozing up a storm, ramping up to the Gotham, Spirit, Golden Globes (apparently?), and the various guild awards. The time to make predictions or make the case for potential Oscar nominees has come. The A.V. Club will be doing a bit of both with the major categories in the coming weeks, starting with Best Supporting Actor.

What makes an ideal supporting film performance? These scene stealers are here with 14 examples, any of which could appear on the list when Academy Award nominations are announced on January 24, 2023. Notably, all but two of these names would be first-time Oscar honorees, making this a particularly exciting race to the awards finish line.

Read more

• Man who ate 40 rotisserie chickens in 40 days: "I just felt like I was doing this for a very important reason"

• "Weird Al" Yankovic's most essential songs: 25 stinging satires that still endure

• The 22 best high school shows of the past 22 years

Paul Dano, The Fabelmans

The Fabelmans | Official Trailer [HD]

Imagine stepping into the lightly fictionalized shoes of Steven Spielberg’s father—after decades of that filmmaker creating movies grappling with father issues. If anyone is up to the task, it’s Paul Dano, who at this point in his fascinating career (remember the farting corpse movie?) is surely overdue for Academy consideration. This writer is still bitter that Dano missed out on a nomination for There Will Be Blood, so a first-time nod for his touching and passionate work as Spielberg’s father figure in The Fabelmans should rectify that.

David Dawson, My Policeman

My Policeman - Official Trailer | Prime Video

It’s only natural that the headlines about My Policeman zeroed in on pop star Harry Styles taking the tried-and-true Oscar-bait route of—gasp!—playin’ gay. But that buzz has unfortunately buried the real standout performance among the prestige film’s ensemble: David Dawson, playing the more out-and-proud lover of Styles’ character. At one point Dawson delivers a heartbreaking monologue with a detachment that speaks to his character’s deep-seated trauma, confirming that he’s a dramatic star on the rise.

Colin Farrell, The Batman

The Batman / Penguin Interrogation Scene (“Why Don’t You Start Harmonizing?”) | Movie CLIP 4K

Few actors have had a year as prolific or impressive as Colin Farrell (spoiler alert: he’ll also make it at least once onto our Best Actor prediction list). But one of his performances, as the Penguin in The Batman, was so transformative it had many audience members rubbernecking: “That was Colin Farrell?!” You might think that his dastardly kingpin, scarred inside and out, isn’t the kind of fare Oscar voters go for—until you remember Heath Ledger and Joaquin Phoenix have earned shiny trophies for playing DC villains.

Brendan Gleeson, The Banshees Of Inisherin

Colin Farrell and Brendan Gleeson in The Banshees Of Inisherin

Sure, you could claim category fraud here, as Martin McDonagh’s The Banshees Of Inisherin is about the dissolution of a friendship between Brendan Gleeson and Colin Farrell. But considering screen time and the idea that it’s mostly told from the perspective of Farrell’s character, a supporting placement for Gleeson here feels apt. And this is certainly an actor who understands how to support a film, in this and countless others. How on Earth has this Irish screen legend never been recognized by the Academy?

Brian Tyree Henry, Causeway

Causeway | Official Trailer 2 HD | A24

If this list has a running theme, it’s “How has this person never been Oscar-nominated?!” Even with Brian Tyree Henry’s relatively recent rise in Hollywood, from Atlanta to Eternals, he is owed Academy recognition—that If Beale Street Could Talk snub still stings. In director Lila Neugebauer’s Causeway, Henry radiates empathy opposite Jennifer Lawrence’s war veteran. There’s something so compelling about the way this actor portrays the daring act that is vulnerability.

Judd Hirsch, The Fabelmans

Judd Hirsch in The Fabelmans

There’s stealing the show in a borderline cameo, and then there’s Judd Hirsch in The Fabelmans. The legendary actor storms his way onto Steven Spielberg’s screen and grasps it by the hands—quite literally, with his passion putting a painful squeeze onto Gabrielle LaBelle’s Sammy. Hirsch’s Uncle Boris serves as the beating heart of this story about family, art, and the irreconcilable reconciliation of the two.

Toby Jones, Empire Of Light

EMPIRE OF LIGHT | Official Trailer | Searchlight Pictures

The inclusion of Empire Of Light on every Oscars prediction list seemed almost mandatory from the start. An ode to cinema that’s dripping in nostalgia and passion, it’s the kind of film we can forgive Academy members for consistently rewarding. Toby Jones is the scene-stealing actor who gets to put a fine point on that idea, with a rousing speech that’s bound to connect with voters trying to decide who’s best inhabiting the screen.

Barry Keoghan, The Banshees Of Inisherin

The Banshees of Inisherin | Colin Farrell, Barry Keoghan | Trailer

There’s a very viable scenario where all four stars of The Banshees Of Inisherin are up for honors at the 95th Academy Awards. Something was clearly in the water on Martin McDonagh’s set, because even Barry Keoghan, ramping up his propensity for offbeat spontaneity and tics, feels right at home in this melancholy-yet-hilarious story. A single line delivery—“There goes that dream”—is enough to earn Keoghan his first-ever appearance on an Oscar ballot, and probably not his last.

Ke Huy Quan, Everything Everywhere All At Once

Everything Everywhere All At Once | Fanny Pack | Official Clip HD | A24

Thank the cinema gods that the 2023 Oscars could conceivably honor a beloved industry veteran for wielding a fanny pack as a weapon. In addition to being an integral part of why Everything Everywhere All At Once became such a runaway hit, Ke Huy Quan is an irresistible first-time Academy nominee as much for his offscreen narrative as his onscreen work. After capturing the hearts of audiences as a rascally kid in both Indiana Jones And The Temple Of Doom and The Goonies, Quan stepped back to direct and coordinate stunts—due primarily to the lack of on-screen opportunities for Asian actors. Now that he’s back in front the camera, Quan has come out swinging.

Eddie Redmayne, The Good Nurse

The Good Nurse | Official Trailer | Netflix

There’s something disarming about Eddie Redmayne, a shrewd enough actor to weaponize that trait in a variety of roles—from quirky in Fantastic Beasts to sentimental in The Theory Of Everything, the latter of which earned him his Oscar. The British star could hear his name called again on nominations day thanks to his work opposite Jessica Chastain as a serial killer in The Good Nurse. Awards voters love actors who deep-dive into morally repugnant or downright sociopathic characters. And Redmayne is positively spine-tingling, without ever sacrificing credibility as a real-life nurse responsible for the deaths of dozens if not hundreds of ailing patients.

Mark Rylance, Bones & All

BONES AND ALL | Theatrical Trailer

There’s been no official database chronicling industry members’ favorite actors, but if you were to poll any cross-section of Hollywood, Mark Rylance might be the number one pick. Anyone who’s ever seen him onstage comes away raving, and his sole Oscar nomination and win, for Bridge Of Spies, is a testament to the respect he garners in the filmmaking industry. The British legend reminds us of his innate power once again with his Gotham Award-nominated turn in Luca Guadagnino’s Bones & All as the nomadic Sully. Watching the ingratiating meekness that is Rylance’s specialty unexpectedly sour into menace opposite Taylor Russell’s Maren proves nothing short of riveting.

Ben Whishaw, Women Talking

WOMEN TALKING | Official Trailer

If crying were an Olympic sport, Ben Whishaw might clinch the gold. Hey, isn’t that sort of what the Oscars are anyway? The Academy loves drama, preferably in a period piece, full of showy-but-not-too-showy emotion, all of which Whishaw absolutely nails in Women Talking. This intimate yet gripping tale of Mennonite women facing an impossible choice is made all the more powerful by the presence of a lone man: Whishaw’s meek schoolteacher August, tragically enamored with Mara Rooney’s Ona. You won’t see a more heartfelt declaration of love onscreen this year.

Michael Kenneth Williams, Breaking

Breaking

A posthumous Oscar nomination for Michael Kenneth Williams isn’t out of the question. Williams’ work as a hostage negotiator Breaking embodies so much of what he excelled at: compelling restraint, a macho exterior masking a sensitive interior, and, most of all, genuine empathy. That he achieves the latter entirely over the phone opposite John Boyega is all the more impressive. Williams also deserves a spot on this list because he’s another screen presence who should have earned more mainstream awards recognition in his lifetime; Breaking would be his first Academy nod, and sadly his last.

Bokeem Woodbine, The Inspection

The Inspection | Official Trailer HD | A24

There’s nothing one-dimensional about Elegance Bratton turning his experience in Marines boot camp into the stunningly powerful film The Inspection. Yet on paper, Bokeem Woodbine’s drill sergeant Leland Laws would seem predictably narrow; casually cruel to his new recruits and confident he can get away with it, he’s essentially this film’s villain, there to present the biggest obstacles to Jeremy Pope’s hero Ellis. Yet Woodbine imbues every glance with riveting nuance, adding to his reputation as an actor who can turn a character’s interiority into edge-of-your-seat entertainment. This may be his best example of that yet.

More from The A.V. Club

• The 15 best films coming to Prime Video in November 2022

• The 50 best HBO shows of all time

Sign up for The A.V. Club's Newsletter. For the latest news, Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

Click here to read the full article.