Oscars 2025 Best Actor nominees: who are the 5 candidates for the Academy Awards?
Ahead of the 97th Oscars at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles, there are two main frontrunners in the race for the Best Actor award.
Adrien Brody and Timothée Chalamet are the frontrunners to win Best Actor at this weekend’s Oscars, with Brody seeking to join an exclusive club of big-screen stars that have scooped the accolade more than once.
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Were Brody to be victorious at Sunday’s Academy Awards, he would become only the 11th multiple Best Actor winner in the event’s nearly 100-year history.
Nominated for his turn as Laszlo Toth in Brady Corbet’s epic period drama The Brutalist, Brody was previously named Best Actor in 2003, for his performance in The Pianist.
The most recent man to win Best Actor for a second time was Anthony Hopkins, who scooped the award in 2021 for The Father, having previously earned the accolade in 1992 for The Silence of the Lambs.
Chalamet, meanwhile, would be a first-time Best Actor winner. Also nominated for Best Actor in 2018 - for Call Me by Your Name - the 29-year-old is on this year’s five-man shortlist for his portrayal of the legendary singer-songwriter Bob Dylan, in James Mangold’s biopic A Complete Unknown.
Timothée Chalamet as Bob Dylan in A COMPLETE UNKNOWN. Nominated for Actor in a Leading Role at the 97th Oscars.
— The Academy (@TheAcademy) February 13, 2025
Watch the #Oscars LIVE on Sunday, March 2nd, at 7e/4p on ABC and Hulu. pic.twitter.com/JHmRQJahEg
Who are the 2025 Best Actor nominees? The full list
Announced by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences in January, the complete list of nominees for Best Actor 2025 is:
Adrien Brody: The Brutalist
Timothée Chalamet: A Complete Unknown
Colman Domingo: Sing Sing
Ralph Fiennes: Conclave
Sebastian Stan: The Apprentice
Like Chalamet, the three other contenders are all chasing a maiden Best Actor award. There is only one first-nominee on the list, though: The Apprentice’s Stan, who portrays Donald Trump in Ali Abassi’s biopic of the early years of the US president’s real-estate career.
Colman Domingo, plays John “Divine G” Whitfield in Sing Sing, a prison drama directed by Greg Kwedar, was also a Best Actor candidate last year, for Rustin. Domingo lost out to Oppenheimer lead Cillian Murphy, who will be on hand to present this year’s Best Actor statuette.
Meanwhile, Ralph Fiennes has ended a nearly three-decade wait for a second Best Actor nod, having been nominated for his depiction of Cardinal Thomas Lawrence in Edward Berger’s big-screen adaption of Conclave, a Robert Harris novel that revolves around the election of a new pope. In 1997, Fiennes was nominated for his performance in The English Patient, but was beaten by Shine’s Geoffrey Rush.
Who is the favorite for Best Actor?
According to odds provided by the betting comparison website Oddschecker, Brody is the bookmakers’ favorite, with moneyline odds of between -240 and -250. Chalamet trails Brody with odds of +150 to +180.
Writing in Variety, the awards journalist Clayton Davis names Brody as his pick in the wake of the 51-year-old’s success so far this awards season, with best actor wins at the Golden Globes, the BAFTAs and the Critics’ Choice Awards. The Hollywood Reporter’s awards specialist Scott Feinberg also ranks Brody ahead of Chalamet as his predicted winner.
It’s worth noting, though, that Chalamet beat Brody at the Screen Actors Guild Awards last weekend - and Rolling Stone’s David Fear reflects how close a race it is between the two Best Actor favorites, writing: “We’re honestly not sure about this one.” Fear adds, however, that it is Brody who most deserves the statuette, declaring: “[He] gives a real once-in-a-generation turn here”.
Per Oddschecker, Fiennes is the third favorite (+1800 to +2600), while Stan (+3500 to +4500) and Domingo (+5000 to +8000) are viewed as the clear outsiders for Best Actor.
Watch the trailers for the five Best Actor-nominated films
The Brutalist:
A Complete Unknown:
Conclave:
Sing Sing:
The Apprentice:
When and where are the 2025 Academy Awards? How can I watch?
The 2025 Academy Awards, which are to be hosted by the comedian Conan O’Brien, are to take place on Sunday, March 2, at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles.
Broadcast live in the U.S. by the TV network ABC, the ceremony is scheduled to get underway at 7:00 p.m. ET/4:00 p.m. PT. You can stream ABC on the online platform fubo, which offers new users a free introductory trial.
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