Best Supporting Actor, 2004
(Click on the linked film titles for reviews of the corresponding films.)
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Nominee Alan Alda The Aviator 25:1 |
He's well-liked by his peers, and has been for decades, and this is his first nod to show for it. |
That can be a hindrance: it's a clear case of a nomination that pays its own rewards. |
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Thomas Haden Church Sideways 7:1 |
Plenty of critics' awards, a great backstory, a key role in a well-liked movie, some memorable lines. Lots to feel good about.
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Except that this is the moment when the movie stars remember that, wait, he is a TV guy. Not everyone is convinced that Church
is straying too far out of his own persona, and it'll take more than cat meows to get him past Morgan Freeman's Lifetime
Achievement nomination and Clive Owen's declaration of arrival.
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Jamie Foxx Collateral 30:1 |
It's a terrific lead performance.
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It's a terrific lead performance. By an actor who already has a lead nomination.
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Morgan Freeman Million Dollar Baby 2:1 |
Is there anyone alive who thinks Morgan Freeman shouldn't have an Oscar by now? He's a hero to most of his colleagues, and
he's managed to roll on up in a front-runner for Best Picture. Everything that won Robin Williams his Oscar in '97, with only
the SAG in his pocket thus far, should do the same for Freeman fivefold.
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If Clive Owen weren't such a potent competitor, Freeman wouldn't have a thing to worry about. As it is, he probably still
doesn't.
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Clive Owen Closer 4:1 |
If Morgan Freeman weren't nominated and hunting his first win, Owen would be a perfect competitor. He has both the Globe and the New York Film Critics awards, meaning that both the star-fuckers and the prestige contingent are aligned behind him. His marquee value is already growing, with Sin City soon on the way. Closer's astringent tone obviously alienated voters in larger categories, but its high-art aspirations look tony and prestigious in a race like this (and Owen was the most widely heralded participant in the whole film, by detractors and fans alike). And he's British! |
It's Morgan, stupid.
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