From Timothée Chalamet and Tom Cruise to Cynthia Erivo: It’s Time for Some Overdue Actors to Finally Win an Oscar
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- Matt Damon, 55, is positioned as the Best Actor frontrunner in Christopher Nolan's "The Odyssey" (Metascore 88), drawing a comparison to Leonardo DiCaprio winning his first Oscar at 41 for "The Revenant" and citing his three prior nominations ("Good Will Hunting," "Invictus," "The Martian").
- Tom Cruise, 64, is in contention for "Digger" (Warner Bros.), an A.G. Iñárritu-directed end-of-the-world comedy in which Cruise wears his own-age makeup, but Warner Bros. is skipping festivals, "which suggests that Warners is scared of critics."
- Ryan Gosling, 45, is in the Best Actor mix for "Project Hail Mary" (Metascore 77) as a science teacher in outer space, though the piece notes "The Odyssey" is "eating up all the oxygen" in the category.
- Timothée Chalamet, 30, looks to rebound in "Dune: Part Three" after last year's "Marty Supreme" campaign produced "a few controversial blunders along the way which may have cost him the Oscar," though the article flags that "genre films don't always yield acting nods."
- Glenn Close is flagged as the most overdue contender with eight competitive Oscar nods, starring in Netflix's Cannes Competition entry "La Bola Negra" (Metascore 85), though the piece notes it's "a small supporting role and Netflix is also campaigning for the more colorful Cruz."
- Mark Ruffalo faces headwinds for "Being Heumann" (Apple TV, TIFF opener), as "many in Hollywood, while respecting his acting chops and Emmy contender 'Task,' are unhappy with his recent vocal pro-Palestine activism and attacks on the Ellisons' contested Warnermount merger."
Why it matters: The ranking effectively sets the awards-season narrative months before nominations, and it locks "The Odyssey" (Metascore 88) into frontrunner status with Damon's overdue narrative attached — a positioning that shapes campaign strategies, prestige media coverage, and theatrical run decisions for the other contenders through March 14, 2027.
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