A month before our December awards vote, the Los Angeles Film Critics Assn. launches a group email thread for members to advocate for their favorite films and standout work. The idea is to help everyone close any gaps in our viewing as we plow through screeners and links in a hopeless attempt to see everything before we vote.
Sometimes the discussion veers into other areas, often focusing on whether a particular performance should be considered lead or supporting. Who’s the true lead in “Emilia Pérez,” Karla Sofía Gascón playing Emilia Pérez, the character that drives the narrative, or Zoe Saldaña, who has the most screen time as the attorney helping her? Or are they co-leads? Netflix doesn’t think so, campaigning Gascón in lead and Saldaña in supporting. (It should be noted that these decisions are made with the actor and their teams.)
You could argue that Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande should be considered co-leads of “Wicked” too. But the musical is really Elphaba’s story, with Grande’s Glinda along for the ride as her best frenemy. So Universal pushing Erivo in lead and Grande for supporting doesn’t seem egregious.
And what about Kieran Culkin going supporting for “A Real Pain,” an odd-couple road movie about two cousins, played by Culkin and the movie’s writer-director, Jesse Eisenberg, traveling to Poland to visit the childhood home of their late grandmother? Culkin has almost as much screen time as Eisenberg, but the story is told from the point of view of Eisenberg’s character. (Same with Saldaña, which is why, for some, her placement has raised eyebrows.)
At our L.A. Film Critics vote, we tackled lead performance first, and Culkin came close to making the final round. Supporting came next, and it was immediately clear that even the people who thought Culkin was a lead weren’t going to be deterred from voting for him, and he won the award with Yura Borisov from “Anora.” A publicist friend texted me afterward: “That’s where Culkin belongs. If you gave him lead, you’d be saying that he was trying to pull a fast one by going supporting.”
Where he belongs remains up to Oscar voters, who don’t have to follow the studio’s suggested placement. And on rare occasions, they haven’t. The Weinstein Co. campaigned Kate Winslet in supporting actress for “The Reader” at the 2009 Oscars, looking to avoid competing with her lead turn opposite Leonardo DiCaprio in “Revolutionary Road.” The Golden Globes and SAG Awards nominated Winslet for supporting, but film academy members put her in lead. And Winslet wound up winning the Oscar. (She made a point of not thanking Weinstein in her acceptance speech.)
It’s hard to see voters making such a category shift with Culkin or Saldaña or Grande this year. Who might be joining them in the supporting categories? Let’s take a quick look.
SUPPORTING ACTOR
Owing to his excellent work — and all that screen time — playing a charmer whose exuberance masks a deep inner turmoil, Culkin has been dominating the season’s early awards. Borisov could join him as a nominee for his soulful performance as the brooding Russian henchman in “Anora,” though it’s fair to wonder if his work might be too subtle for a branch that tends to reward “most” instead of best.
If you’re looking for “most,” Denzel Washington has got you covered and then some for “Gladiator II.” He’s clearly having the time of his life, and his exuberance (and the sharks!) made the movie well worth our time. Another actor clearly enjoying himself is Edward Norton playing folk singer Pete Seeger in “A Complete Unknown.” Norton leans into Seeger’s folksiness but also weaves in a manipulative streak as we see Seeger trying to keep Bob Dylan (Timothée Chalamet) in the activist movement. He’s every bit as good as Chalamet.
Nobody has a better story among the supporting actor contenders than Clarence Maclin, who went from Sing Sing to “Sing Sing,” and he’s a marvel playing an inmate initially reluctant to participate in the prison theater program. Maclin should be winning more awards, but the movie just hasn’t found a big enough audience.
That’s five, but there are others in the hunt. Jeremy Strong is at the top of his game (as always) playing Roy Cohn in “The Apprentice.” Stanley Tucci brings his delicious snark to “Conclave.” And there’s Peter Sarsgaard and John Magaro, two members of the excellent “September 5” ensemble that, like “His Three Daughters,” is hampered because everyone’s so good. How do you single anyone out?
SUPPORTING ACTRESS
This Oscar race will come down to a battle between Saldaña and Grande, thanks to the screen time, the quality of their work and the fact that this has been a strangely thin year for supporting women. If I were voting, I’d check off Natasha Lyonne, Carrie Coon and Elizabeth Olsen from “His Three Daughters,” alongside Grande and Saldaña, and call it a day. Though I would be tempted to find room for Margaret Qualley, so good as Demi Moore‘s younger half in “The Substance.”
There’s been a lot of justified praise for Danielle Deadwyler’s performance in “The Piano Lesson,” playing a woman determined to deal with her family’s past in her own way — and not according to her brother’s wishes. After being overlooked two years ago for “Till,” Deadwyler makes a clear case for her first nomination. Felicity Jones also is looking to break through as an Oscar nominee, and her work as the strong-willed wife in the second half of “The Brutalist” has put her in the conversation.
Then there are Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor and Isabella Rossellini, making big impressions in a small amount of time. Rossellini has never been nominated and is in “Conclave” for less than eight minutes. But she has one great scene (that curtsy!) that often generates applause at screenings. Voters remember that. Ellis-Taylor, meanwhile, brings a palpable heartache to “Nickel Boys” as a devoted grandmother sidelined by inequality and avarice.
Finally, there’s Selena Gomez playing a drug cartel boss’ wife in “Emilia Pérez,” delivering a showstopping song and adding an interesting ambiguity to her character. Gomez has been called out for her Spanish in the film, but that feels like nitpicking in a movie where absurdity often feels like the principle.
