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Tuesday, February 23, 2016

88th Academy Awards: Best Actor

The nominees are:

Bryan Cranston, Trumbo

Role: Dalton Trumbo, famed Hollywood screenwriter who was blacklisted during the HUAC era, but who perseveres and finds a way to keep getting his work produced despite the prohibition.

Oscar History: first nomination


Matt Damon, The Martian

Role: Mark Watney, an astronaut presumed dead and left behind on Mars who finds a way to survive on the hostile planet while waiting to be rescued.

Oscar History: 1 win for Best Original Screenplay for Good Will Hunting (1997); 2 previous nominations for Best Actor for Good Will Hunting (1997) and for Best Supporting Actor for Invictus (2009)


Leonardo DiCaprio, The Revenant

Role: Hugh Glass, a frontiersman who is brutally attacked by a bear but gathers the strength he needs to set off in pursuit of the man who left him for dead and murdered his son.

Oscar History: 5 previous nominations for Best Supporting Actor for What's Eating Gilbert Grape? (1993), Best Actor for The Aviator (2004), Blood Diamond (2006), and The Wolf of Wall Street (2013), and Best Picture for The Wolf of Wall Street (2013)


Michael Fassbender, Steve Jobs

Role: Steve Jobs, technology entrepreneur who is as mentally intelligent as he is emotionally stupid, and whose goal to become the master of the universe comes at the cost of his relationships with the people around him.

Oscar History: 1 previous nomination for Best Supporting Actor for 12 Years a Slave


Eddie Redmayne, The Danish Girl

Role: Lili Elbe, formerly Einar Wegener, the first publicly known person to undergo sex reassignment surgery, who discovers her hidden identity as a woman while posing as a model for her wife's paintings.

Oscar History: 1 win for Best Actor for The Theory of Everything


What I've Seen: The Martian, The Revenant, Steve Jobs, Trumbo

My Pick: Michael Fassbender, Steve Jobs

Not Nominated, But Should Have Been: Ian McKellan, Mr. Holmes

Predicted Winner: Leonardo DiCaprio, The Revenant

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