2025 Oscars: Best Supporting Actor Predictions

Nominations voting is from January 8-12, 2025, with official Oscar nominations introduced January 17, 2025. Last voting is February 11-18, 2025. And at last, the 97th Oscars telecast will likely be broadcast on Sunday, March 2 and air stay on ABC at 7:00 p.m. ET/ 4:00 p.m. PT. We replace our picks via awards season, so preserve checking IndieWire for all our 2025 Oscar predictions.

Predicting Greatest Supporting Actor contenders early on is all the time one of the troublesome challenges for prognostication, as a result of one can not predict (principally sight unseen) whether or not there are any movies that voters will go all-in on, recognizing multiple scene stealer. In spite of everything, some movies actually have “12 Offended Males” to select from.

That stated, the minute the Sundance premiere of “A Actual Ache” ended, critics have been already declaring a nomination spot completely reserved for Kieran Culkin in his first main function post-”Succession.” Adam Pearson in “A Totally different Man,” which screened at each Sundance and Berlin, and Clarence Maclin, who performs a model of himself in Toronto premiere “Sing Sing,” have equally impressed early and attentive audiences.

By way of the movies which have already had a large launch, each “Challengers” star Mike Faist and “The Bikeriders” star face the dilemma of getting to ascertain their roles as lead or supporting (each instances might be made), however it might make extra sense to decide on a special class from their respective co-stars Josh O’Connor and Austin Butler, who’ve constructed up extra momentum alongside the circuit already. In the meantime, it’s rather more clear that “Sorts of Kindness” star Willem Dafoe and “Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga” star Chris Hemsworth are in supporting roles, however their movies are weighed down by the narrative that they don’t seem to be very industrial.

The heavyweights which can be nonetheless to come back are Denzel Washington in “Gladiator II,” Samuel L. Jackson in “The Piano Lesson,” and several other stars from “Blitz” and “Conclave,” together with Stephen Graham and Harris Dickinson within the former, and John Lithgow and Stanley Tucci within the latter.

However by no means depend out a star-making efficiency with regards to contending for this class. Mark Edelstein and Yuri Borisov already made a splash in Palme d’Or winner “Anora,” and plenty of are trying ahead to Luca Guadagnino’s new discovery Drew Starkey, who’s going from Netflix teen cleaning soap “Outer Banks” to starring reverse Daniel Craig in “Queer.”

Contenders are listed in alphabetical order, beneath. No actor will likely be deemed a frontrunner till I’ve seen the movie.

Frontrunners:
Kieran Culkin (“A Actual Ache”)
Mike Faist (“Challengers”)
Tom Hardy (“The Bikeriders”)
Adam Pearson (“A Totally different Man”)
Clarence Maclin (“Sing Sing”) 

Contenders:
Yuri Borisov (“Anora”)
Willem Dafoe (“Sorts of Kindness”)
Harris Dickinson (“Blitz”)
Mark Edelstein (“Anora”)
Stephen Graham (“Blitz”)
Chris Hemsworth (“Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga”)
Samuel L. Jackson (“The Piano Lesson”)
John Earl Jelks (“Exhibiting Forgiveness”)
John Lithgow (“Conclave”)
Scoot McNairy (“Nightbitch”)
Paul Raci (“Sing Sing”)
Drew Starkey (“Queer”)
Jeremy Sturdy (“The Apprentice”)
Stanley Tucci (“Conclave”)
Denzel Washington (“Gladiator II”)