Episode 24 — Oscar Predictions: Best Male Actor in a Supporting Role

In this episode  of Movies I Give a Fork About, AJ breaks down the nominees for Best Male Actor in a Supporting Role at this year’s Academy Awards.

This category features a wide range of performances — from quiet, restrained character work to bold, scene-stealing turns that reshape the films they appear in.

A J revisits each performance, explores what makes them memorable, and discusses the different acting styles represented in this year’s lineup.

Then it comes down to the predictions:

Who will win, who should win, and who could pull off the surprise on Oscar night.

If you’ve been following the show’s awards season coverage, this episode brings together the final thoughts before the Academy reveals the winner.

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Hosted by AJ Jones, this podcast cuts through hype, marketing, and awards buzz to answer one simple question:

Is this movie actually worth your time?

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Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Welcome to Movies I Give a Fork About, the podcast where we don't use stars, we use forks. Because not every movie earns your emotion. Not every movie deserves your time. But when one truly does, that's when you give a fork. I'm AJ, and today's episode is the Oscar Predictions for Best Male Actor in a Supporting Role. There's five nominees this year, and if you've been listening to the podcast, you will know I've already reviewed all of these films and the performances. So I'm going to give some quick thoughts on each before getting to my predictions. Benicio del Toro One Battle After Another. For me, this is a very solid nomination, and since he's on screen for such a short period of time, it's actually quite impressive. His performance anchors the chaos. Where DiCaprio spirals, Del Toro studies, and his restraint becomes structural to the film. He doesn't chase attention, he commands space quietly. And his performance is one of the film's standouts, and he works beautifully opposite DiCaprio, offering a grounded counterbalance while finding moments of humanity and calm in an otherwise tense scene. Next we have Jacob Alordi in Frankenstein. I can definitely see why Alordi has been nominated here. His performance in Frankenstein is subtle and incredibly nuanced. Much of what he communicates comes through his eyes, conveying deep sadness and growing curiosity with very little dialogue. As the creature in Guillermo del Toro's Frankenstein, this feels like a transformative, career-defining role. One of the film's emotional high points is his interaction with a blind man, where the creature's yearning for connection and understanding becomes painfully clear. Alori's expressive eyes carry so much of this character's internalized pain. And for me, that is exactly what makes this performance so hauntingly beautiful. Delroy Lindo in Sinners. As I've said it before on this podcast, I fucking hate horror movies. And yet somehow I ended up watching two of them this year, Weapons and Sinners. But in Sinners, Delroy Lindo delivers a phenomenal performance as Delta Slim, a liquor-loving blues musician living in the Jim Crow era in the Mississippi Delta. And for me, what makes Lindo's performance so powerful is the profound connection between the character and the place he inhabits. For me, he becomes the steady heartbeat of the film, the wise elder of this unlikely group of people who find themselves trapped together as the story unfolds. There is tremendous nuance and gravitas in what Lindo does here. He portrays a man shaped by generational trauma and moral ambiguity in the rural South. And it's hard not to imagine that his character's reliance on alcohol is tied to everything he has witnessed. The violence, the injustice, and the ever-present threat of lynching and mistreatment faced by people who looked like him during the Jim Crow era. Sean Penn in one battle after another, his performance as Colonel Lockjaw has been widely praised as a masterclass and a riveting return to form. Playing the film's menacingly yet darkly humorous antagonist, Penn delivers an intense and at times satirical portrayal of an unhinged military leader. There is no doubt the character is a calculating villain and a ruthless white supremacist. But Penn's physical choices, the way the character walked, talked, and his constant obsession with fixing that pathetic comb over felt over the top to me. It just didn't quite land. And for me, he embodies the ideological rigidity and power, but the line that he walks between authority and absurdity tipped a little too far over to absurdity for me. That said, he is clearly the favored to win. Given his victories at BAFTA and the actor awards, formerly the SAG Awards, so we'll see how this plays out. His performance is built on intensity, but for me it leans towards spectacle. And as a result, it wasn't the strongest performance in the category for me. Stellan Skarsgard Sentimental Value. His performance here is extraordinary. For me, one of the clearest signs of a great performance is when I completely believe the emotional reality of the character. When I empathize with what they're experiencing, and that is exactly what Skarsgard delivered here. His performance has incredible nuance. There's pain, there's regret, there is a sense of a life lived with an unresolved history. But it's never overplayed. It is restrained, it is subtle. And a lot of that comes through in the smallest choices, the way he holds a silence, the weight behind a glance, the slight hesitation before he speaks. Those quiet moments reveal an entire lifetime of emotional history. And that restraint is exactly what makes the performance feel so authentic. So my prediction for best male actor in a supporting role, clearly there are several strong performances here, but sometimes it this also feels like a fucking popularity contest rather than pure recognition of the work. And unfortunately, I think popularity or past acclaim is going to win out over the strongest performance. With that being said, here's how I see it playing out. Will win Sean Penn. Should win Stellan Skarsgard, could win Delroy Lindo. And that's today's fork. If you enjoyed this episode, please follow the show and share it with someone who actually gives a fork about movies. Until next time, watch boldly, judge honestly, and never be afraid to give a fork.