BEVERLY HILLS, CALIFORNIA – JANUARY 23: In this handout photo provided by The Academy, (L-R) Bowen … [+] Yang and Rachel Sennott present the nominees for Actor in a Leading Role onstage during the 97th Oscars Nominations Announcement at Samuel Goldwyn Theater on January 23, 2025 in Beverly Hills, California. FOR EDITORIAL USE ONLY (Photo by Richard Harbaugh/The Academy via Getty Images)
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The 2025 Oscars ceremony is Sunday, where Adrien Brody, Timothée Chalamet, Colman Domingo, Ralph Fiennes and Sebastian Stan are in contention for the Best Actor Academy Award — and realistically the Oscar could go to any one of them.
It’s been quite a few years since there was a sure thing pick for Best Actor going into the Oscars, perhaps as far back as 2011 when Daniel Day-Lewis won his record third statuette in the category for playing Abraham Lincoln in director Steven Spielberg’s historical epic Lincoln.
ForbesWhat Time Do The Oscars Start? How To Watch On Free TV And StreamingBy Tim LammersOn the flip side, there can be huge upsets, like in 2002 when Best Actor nominee Brody shocked the crowd by defeating four previous Oscar winners — Nicolas Cage, Michael Caine, Day-Lewis and Jack Nicholson — for his turn in The Pianist.
In more recent years, Anthony Hopkins also pulled a surprise win for The Father over the heavily favored posthumous nominee Chadwick Boseman for Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom.
An Oscar statue is seen as preparations are made for the 97th Annual Academy Awards outside the … [+] Dolby Theatre in Hollywood, California, on February 28, 2025. (Photo by ANGELA WEISS / AFP) (Photo by ANGELA WEISS/AFP via Getty Images)
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Who Has The Most Momentum Going Into The Best Actor’s Race At The Oscars 2025 Ceremony?
Adrien Brody has had a highly successful awards season for his turn in The Brutalist, winning Best Actor trophies at the ceremonies for the Golden Globes (Motion Picture – Drama), Critics Choice Awards, the British Academy of Film and Television Arts Awards and New York Film Critics Circle.
Timothée Chalamet, upended the 2025 Best Actor Oscar race on Feb. 23 when he took the Outstanding Male Actor in a Leading Role trophy at the 2025 Screen Actors Guild Awards for playing music icon Bob Dylan in the music biopic A Complete Unknown.
ForbesOscars 2025 Predictions: ‘Anora’ And Timothée Chalamet Could Win BigBy Tim LammersAnd while it’s true that Chalamet has earned far fewer awards season wins than Brody (he earned Best Actor honors from the Boston Society of Film Critics, Vancouver Film Critics Circle and the Palm Springs International Film Festival), it’s also important to point out that the majority of Brody’s wins came from film critics and journalists — not industry professionals like the members of the Screen Actors Guild.
As such, the upset SAG Award win vaulted Chalamet to the top of the category of competitors for the Best Actor Oscar and given him the most momentum to win the coveted statuette.
While it seems like a two-person race for the Best Actor Oscar for Brody and Chalamet, viewers shouldn’t discount an upset win by three remaining candidates: Colman Domingo for Sing Sing, Ralph Fiennes for Conclave and Sebastian Stan for The Apprentice.
ForbesWhat Time Is Oscars 2025 Red Carpet Pre-Show? How To Watch On TV And StreamingBy Tim LammersAfter all, Brody proved more than two decades ago that the Best Actor Oscar could truly go to anyone after he defeated four cinematic titans for the most prestigious honor an actor could hope for in the film industry.
Domingo, Fiennes and Stan have certainly earned their share of high-profile notices this awards season, where they’ve vied for the Best Actor trophy against Brody and Chalamet at the Golden Globes, CCAs, BAFTAs and SAG Awards.
On top of that, Domingo—who became only the second Black actor to earn back-to-back Oscar nominations after Denzel Washington—has been honored for his turn in Sing Sing with a Best Performance honor from the Gotham Awards and National Society of Film Critics.
ForbesOscars 2025: Time, Where To Watch And More—Everything To KnowBy Tim LammersFiennes, meanwhile, has been nominated for three Oscars now and earned wins from the London Critics Circle Film Awards and the Online Film Critics Society Award and Oscar voters may feel that the veteran actor is finally due for a statuette.
Lastly, while Stan may feel like a long shot, it’s important to remember that he was nominated in both the drama and musical or comedy categories at the Golden Globes — for The Apprentice in drama and A Different Man in musical or comedy — which is a rare feat for any actor. In fact, the double nomination by the Globes may have been enough to catapult Stan into the Best Actor race for the 97th Oscars.
The Best Actor Oscar — as well as the winners for the 22 other categories — will be revealed at the Oscars 2025 celebration Sunday evening in Los Angeles, which begins at 7 p.m. ET / 4 p.m. PT.
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