Early 2027 Oscar Predictions: Best Actor

Early 2027 Oscar Predictions: Best Actor 

We’re less than a year from the Oscars and that means I’m going to be predicting who I believe are getting into the Best Actor category at the Oscars. Who do I believe those actors to be? Let’s talk about it!

• Honorable Mentions
• John Malkovich (Wild Horse Nine)
• Charles Melton (Saturn Return)
• Brad Pitt (The Adventure of Cliff Booth)
• Sebastian Stan (Fjord)

5. Pedro Pascal (Behemoth): Behemoth is a film that I actually didn’t know about when predicting what films I believe will be getting a Best Picture nomination. Behemoth is described as this. “Follows a musician from a family of musicians who returns to Los Angeles. A love letter to the music of the movies and the people who make it.” It’s written and directed by Tony Gilroy who is one of the most celebrated screenwriters of the last 30 years. He’s done a few films over the years that have generated some Oscar buzz, the last time was 20 years ago with Michael Clayton. He directed Tilda Swinton in that movie that won the Oscar for Best Supporting Actress. Also, he directed Nightcrawler with Jake Gyllenhaal who didn’t receive an Oscar nomination but he got nominated in several places and probably was very close to getting that nomination. Besides, Pedro is of course an actor that’s been around a while. He’s really shot to fame in the last several years starting with The Mandalorian and he’s been in the MCU, the DCEU, and several other franchise films. I feel like he’s going to earn an Oscar nomination one of these days, it could make sense to give it to him with this film. It’s a movie that’s a celebration of movies, those films tend to do with Academy voters. 

4. Matt Damon (The Odyssey): This is one that I’m struggling with where exactly to rank him on this list. Matt Damon is the star of The Odyssey, the film that I believe has the biggest chance of getting a Best Picture nomination. Because of that, I feel like it’s an easy prediction to put Matt Damon on this list. At the same time, Christopher Nolan’s films always get a ton of Oscar nominations. Only four of Nolan’s directed performances have been nominated for at the Oscars. Granted, ¾ of those have won. But my gut is telling me that Damon doesn’t get the Oscar nomination. But at the same time my gut is telling me to put him in here because he’s the star of The Odyssey. I’m a big fan of Matt Damon, he’s one of my favorite actor. But he’s not an actor that shows up a lot at the Oscars, especially in the acting categories. It’s been over 10 years since his last nomination for The Martian. He was in Christopher Nolan’s last film that received 13 nominations and he was one of the only main parts of it to not receive a nomination anywhere. I feel confident putting him on this list, but I could also see a world where he misses. I debated putting him as an honorable mention. But it felt foolish of me to do so given he’s the star of the film that I believe is most likely going to be nominated for Best Picture. 

3. Jaafar Jackson (Michael): This is one that I haven’t seen a lot of people put on their predictions. Maybe that means that I shouldn’t either and he’s not going to receive a nomination. The big thing that I think hurts Jaafar Jackson is that he’s simply too new. This is his first ever acting performances and very rarely do the Oscars acknowledge those kinds of performances. Last year, Chase Infiniti lost the Oscar nomination for One Battle After Another. That film was the Best Picture front runner, that received 13 nominations. Ultimately, I think that could hurt Jaafar Jackson from getting the Oscar nomination. Musical biopics tend to do well with the Oscars. Rami Malek won the Oscar for Bohemian Rhapsody, despite that being a controversial win. Austin Butler was probably in second place when he lost to Brendan Fraser. Taron Egerton didn’t get the Oscar nomination for Rocketman, but he was probably #6 and just missed it. There’s a good track record with musical biopic performances getting in and receiving all sorts of acting nominations. If Michael is a true crowd pleaser that gets people talking and has massive staying power for all of the year, then I think Jaafar Jackson has a good shot of an Oscar nomination. 

2. Ryan Gosling (Project Hail Mary): Maybe this is recency bias to have him at #2. I know that people are putting him in here but more in that 4th or 5th spot. For me, I feel very confident that he’s getting here. It’s a weird comparison because they’re very different movies but I think Sinners should that there’s love for blockbuster performance. I think with Michael B. Jordan winning the Oscar, it showed even more that blockbuster performances can win Oscars. Do I think Ryan Gosling will win the Oscar for Project Hail Mary? No. He might win some televised awards here and there. But I think he’s going to show up just about everywhere because Project Hail Mary is a beloved movie that’s going to be a big Osacr contender this awards season. I think it’s also easy to put him on this list because he’s the only performance on this list that we’ve seen. We have no idea how well Damon or Pascal are going to be in their movie. But we know that Gosling delivered a great performance in Project Hail Mary. It’s a performance that I view as similar to Tom Hanks in Cast Away and Matt Damon in The Martian. It’s a film that only works because it’s on the shoulders of the lead actor. Hanks and Damon both received Oscar nominations for their performances and probably came close to winning. I feel confident about Gosling getting in. I think he could miss somewhere along the way, but overall I feel confident that he’ll get that Oscar nomination. 

1. Tom Cruise (Digger): This is one of the Oscar nominations that I feel the most confident in. Tom Cruise has never won a competitive Oscar before. He did get an Honorary Oscar last November, but the fact that he’s never won a competitive Oscar is crazy to me. I’d say that Cruise is the actor that’s long overdue for an Oscar. He spent 15+ years focusing on Mission Impossible and other action movies, and now he’s doing a more serious role that I feel is going to earn him that nomination. I thought he had a good chance to get in for Top Gun: Maverick, that would’ve been a cool nomination. The other key important detail in here, the film is directed by Alejandro G. Inarritu who directed Birdman and The Revenant. This is the guy that directed an Oscar winning performance out of Leonardo DiCaprio. Another actor who people viewed as long overdue for an Oscar. If he can do that for DiCaprio, why can’t he do that with Cruise? I think most people want to see Cruise up on that stage holding an Oscar. He’s in his 60s now, and it seems like maybe he’s leaning towards doing more drama films and not to many more action films. We haven’t seen the movie, it’ll be a while before we know any sort of buzz surrounding it. But as of right now, I feel confident that Tom Cruise is getting that Oscar nomination and even winning that Oscar.