Oscars 2025: Who’s in for supporting actor and actress?

A month before our December awards vote, the Los Angeles Film Critics Association launches a group email thread for members to advocate for their favourite films and standout work. The idea is to help everyone close any gaps in our viewing as we plow through screeners and links in a hopeless attempt to see everything before we vote.

Sometimes the discussion veers into other areas, often focusing on whether a particular performance should be considered lead or supporting. Who’s the true lead in “Emilia Pérez,” Karla Sofía Gascón playing Emilia Pérez, the character that drives the narrative, or Zoe Saldaña, who has the most screen time as the attorney helping her? Or are they co-leads? Netflix doesn’t think so, campaigning Gascón in lead and Saldaña in supporting. (It should be noted that these decisions are made with the actor and their teams.)

You could argue that Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande should be considered co-leads of “Wicked” too. But the musical is really Elphaba’s story, with Grande’s Glinda along for the ride as her best frenemy. So Universal pushing Erivo in lead and Grande for supporting doesn’t seem egregious.

And what about Kieran Culkin going supporting for “A Real Pain,” an odd-couple road movie about two cousins, played by Culkin and the movie’s writer-director, Jesse Eisenberg, traveling to Poland to visit the childhood home of their late grandmother? Culkin has almost as much screen time as Eisenberg, but the story is told from the point of view of Eisenberg’s character. (Same with Saldaña, which is why, for some, her placement has raised eyebrows.)

At our L.A. Film Critics vote, we tackled lead performance first, and Culkin came close to making the final round. Supporting came next, and it was immediately clear that even the people who thought Culkin was a lead weren’t going to be deterred from voting for him, and he won the award with Yura Borisov from “Anora.”

A publicist friend texted me afterward: “That’s where Culkin belongs. If you gave him lead, you’d be saying that he was trying to pull a fast one by going supporting.” Where he belongs remains up to Oscar voters, who don’t have to follow the studio’s suggested placement. And on rare occasions, they haven’t.

The Weinstein Co. campaigned Kate Winslet in supporting actress for “The Reader” at the 2009 Oscars, looking to avoid competing with her lead turn opposite Leonardo DiCaprio in “Revolutionary Road.”

The Golden Globes and SAG Awards nominated Winslet for supporting, but film academy members put her in lead. And Winslet wound up winning the Oscar. (She made a point of not thanking Weinstein in her acceptance speech.)

Supporting actor: Owing to his excellent work — and all that screen time — playing a charmer whose exuberance masks a deep inner turmoil, Culkin has been dominating the season’s early awards. Borisov could join him as a nominee for his soulful performance as the brooding Russian henchman in “Anora,” though it’s fair to wonder if his work might be too subtle for a branch that tends to reward “most” instead of best.

If you’re looking for “most,” Denzel Washington has got you covered and then some for “Gladiator II.” He’s clearly having the time of his life, and his exuberance (and the sharks!) made the movie well worth our time. Another actor clearly enjoying himself is Edward Norton playing folk singer Pete Seeger in “A Complete Unknown.”

Norton leans into Seeger’s folksiness but also weaves in a manipulative streak as we see Seeger trying to keep Bob Dylan (Timothée Chalamet) in the activist movement. He’s every bit as good as Chalamet.

Supporting actress: This Oscar race will come down to a battle between Saldaña and Grande, thanks to the screen time, the quality of their work and the fact that this has been a strangely thin year for supporting women.

If I were voting, I’d check off Natasha Lyonne, Carrie Coon and Elizabeth Olsen from “His Three Daughters,” alongside Grande and Saldaña, and call it a day.

Though I would be tempted to find room for Margaret Qualley, so good as Demi Moore’s younger half in “The Substance.”

Tribune News Service