Oscar's Best Actor (2006)

The Nominees


Philip Seymour Hoffman as Truman Capote, Capote



Terrence Howard as DJay, Hustle & Flow



Heath Ledger as Ennis Del Mar, Brokeback Mountain



Joaquin Phoenix as Johnny Cash, Walk the Line



David Strathairn as Edward R. Murrow, Good Night, And Good Luck



You may not have seen all five of the films, but vote for who you think will win Best Actor at the 78th Annual Academy Awards. Or vote for who you wish would win, even though you suspect it'll go to somebody else. Let's discuss the Academy's choices, whether you agree with them or not.

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Haven't seen all five, but was impressed with Heath Ledger's performance; he's come a long way from A Knight's Tale...

I wasn't too impressed with Ledger in Brokeback. I love the film and both of their performances but i would rate Gyllenhaal over Heath, i felt more emotion from his role.

I'm egging for Hoffman in Capote.

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I agree with what Holden said in the other thread. It's going to be Philip Seymour Hoffman. I'd like to see David Strathairn take the Oscar home - much the same way I wanted to see Daniel Day-Lewis take it home a few years ago for Gangs of New York - but I don't see him winning. I'd also like to see Joaquin win, because he's putting out such passionate, committed work these days (and he's been so involved with the film and Johnny Cash's legacy that he deserves to win for dedication alone).

I've only seen Walk the Line and while Phoenix was very good, I don't know how it compares to the others. Hoffman has several excellent performances behind him and I suspect he'll win. My personal choice, partly due to the subject matter and the cool black and white, is Strathairn.

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Everybody nominated is experiencing their first taste of the Oscar fun, except for Jaoquin, who embarassingly was nominated for his embarassingly over-the-top silly work in Gladiator. Even sillier and much more embarassing, Gladiator won Best Picture. But Phoenix did lose in the Supporting category, to Benicio Del Toro in Traffic. The good news is this time he very much earned his slot, as he was fantastic as Johnny Cash in Walk the Line, from the singing on down. The bad news for him is, he did it in the wrong frippin' year. As good as Phoenix is, there ain't no way he's beating out P.S. Hoffman. No way.

Heath Ledger is in the hottest movie of the year, and what's more is he's astoundingly good in the lead. He really hadn't show that he was capable of too much until Brokeback, but my goodness. He gives such a nuanced, controlled, perfectly subtle performance as Ennis. It's like a graduate study course in screen acting watching him in this flick. He's going to get so many better scripts for the next few years, and I hope he picks others that showcase what he's really capable of. Major kudos indeed......Oh, and there's no fu*kin' way he's going to beat P.S. Hoffman.

David Strathairn is an actor I've loved since I saw him in John Sayles' Matewan in the late '80s. He's been in seven of that great writer/director's films thus far, and he's always perfect. He has numerous other great roles in good films to his credit too, and he's the type of actor who is so talented that even if he's only on screen for a scene or three in support, you always notice him - and you always respect what the man can do. Strathairn just turned fifty-seven, and with the exception of a couple of the Sayles greats this is the first time somebody else gave him a starring role. It's like he had been waiting all this time just to get the call to play Murrow. Great work from a great actor, and long overdue recognition. And no, he ain't got a chance either.

Terrence Howard. That he got nominated as Best Actor is sooooo cool on so many levels, and the best thing about it is he just carried that great film Hustle & Flow (for those of you who bothered to take a chance on it beyond the basic plot outline) and man oh man did he ever earn it. Terrence has been ready to break out for a couple years now, and between Crash (which just as easily might have netted him a Supporting nod as well), the HBO movie "Lackawana Blues" and most especially Hustle & Flow, Howard just plain blew up! Everybody in that showbiz town knows who he is now, and he's going to get better and better parts as a rule from here on out. If he handles them like he handled Hustle & Flow, he'll be back again and again as an Oscar nominee. Which is good news, because as elated as I am that the Academy recognized his work with this big nomination, there ain't no way in ***** he's gonna get past P.S. Hoffman.


Yes, Philip Seymour Hoffman as Truman Capote is that good. This race was over in October after Capote was released. If the bean counters over at Price/Waterhouse ever decide to publically release the voting totals, this is going to prove to be one of the biggest margins of victory ever. And not at all because it's a weak field. All four of those other performances might well have won in other years, that's how good they are. But Hoffman gave the performance of the year, and of the millenium so far. It is definitely one for the ages. Plus on top of the sheer brilliance of his Capote, Philip Seymour Hoffman has been a damn good actor for lots of years now, toiling without a nomination of any kind. I don't think he was ever even in the serious running, as far as the Academy is concerned. But Gah-damn, he impressed the heck out of EVERYbody with Capote.

I seem to remember being so sure that Daniel Day-Lewis had the Oscar for his Bill the Butcher in 2002, and I can't help but feel a little deja vu.

This list seems very strong. Albeit I've only seen two movies but all the actors have gotten tons of great nods. It seems stronger than the female performance nominations (which is basically two women).

My favorite and the winner, Phillip Seymour Hoffman.

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Really?

I don't think Daniel Day-Lewis was really a clear frontrunner, most definitely not like Hoffman's Capote is. Daniel had won some of the critic's prizes and the SAG Award that year, but Nicholson won the Golden Globe and some of the others and Caine had won most of the critic's prizes Daniel or Jack didn't. That Oscar nominated field of five was all really, really close and had five strong performances too. For those who don't remember, the category was filled with Daniel Day-Lewis (Gangs of New York), Jack Nicholson (About Schmidt), Nic Cage (Adaptation), Michael Caine (The Quiet American) and Adrien Brody (The Pianist). I think most "experts" and all of the buzz saw it as a very tight three-way race between Nicholson, Day-Lewis and Caine. Everybody in the category had won at least one Oscar before: Day-Lewis (one win out of two nominations), Cage (one win for his only other nomination), Caine (two wins in five previous nods) and Jack (three wins, and this was Nicholson's twelfth nomination!). So everyone had an Oscar already...everyone except Adrien Brody, of course. When Brody won it was one of the biggest upsets and only pure surprises in the past forty years of the Academy Awards. You'll get some outsiders, unknowns and darkhorses winning in the supporting acting categories, but it very, very, very rarely happens with Best Actor or Best Actress.

But as amazing as Brody's win was (and very much deserved, too), there wasn't one clear favorite he had to pull way ahead of in the voting on that ballot. The fact that there was no frontrunning favorite between Day-Lewis, Nicholson, Caine and even Cage made it possible for Adrien Brody to pull off that amazing win. Something like that simply isn't in the works this year. Hoffman is so obviously the super-deluxe favorite, and among the others any remaining support has to be split pretty evenly over all four of them. There's just no way Ledger, Phoenix, Strathairn or Howard are going to get enough votes to win. I'll even wager that at least two of those nominees are going to be voting for Philip Seymour Hoffman rather than themselves.


We'll know in a month, but sure things like this don't come around all that often at the Oscars. Hoffman is as strong a lock as it gets.

Yeah, you're right. I was just speaking about my "gut" feeling. When Day-Lewis was up for the Oscar, I felt that he gave the most dynamic and dedicated performance (much like Hoffman's Capote in 2006), and that his return to cinema (to a Scorsese film, no less) in such a profound way after a long hiatus would surely get him the Oscar. That, and I was probably a little biased as well: his Bill the Butcher is one of the most solid, (as weird as it sounds) believable, and original roles I've seen in a long time.

I had to vote for Joaquin Phoenix coz I didn't see any other the other films.

I have my money on Philip Seymour Hoffman... Great actor. I think he was great in Capote.

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Having seen Good Night and Good Luck I would like to change my vote to David Stathairn, I thought he was excellent. The style of film depended entirely on its performances, and he carried the film well.

ACK ... I haven't seen any of the movies ... why isn't Harry Potter on there? LOL

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Because the kids can't act and the adults overact? And they are mostly British?

I'm all about Heath Ledger winning although it would be great to see Walk The Line win... I don't understand why Gylenhaal is being so overlooked.

Jake Gyllenhaal's performance in Brokeback wasn't overlooked: he is nominated as Best Supporting Actor.

And won the BAFTA for best supporting actor.

I cant see anyone else but Hoffman winning, his most likely candidate is Phoenix, but surely Hoffman will win, I sure hope he does anyway, he's long been hiding in the shadows its about time he got the plaudits and leading man roles he has deserved for years.

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