Alternate Best Actor 2024: Results

10. Keith Kupferer in Ghostlight - Kupferer gives a convincing and very moving portrayal of a man finding a healthy way to release his pent up trauma. 

Best Scene: Court deposition. 

9. Hugh Grant in Heretic - Grant elevates the entirety of the film just through his off-beat deliveries and quietly chilling moments. 

Best Scene: Monopoly. 

8. Daniel Zovatto in Woman of the Hour - Zovatto gives a terrifying performance by convincingly portraying both the false charm and brutal cruelty of his serial killer. 

Best Scene: Letting a victim live. 

7. Jesse Plemons in Kinds of Kindness - Plemons artfully manages the film's unique tone to deliver on the deadpan comedy along but with some genuine emotion buried within that. 

Best Scene: Twisted request.

6. Timothée Chalamet in Dune Part II - Chalamet gives a properly charismatic hero's journey for much of the film but then takes it to the next level by twisting it into something nefarious by the end of the film. 

Best Scene: Rallying the Fremen. 

5. George MacKay in The Beast - MacKay gives multiple compelling performances, including a wholly convincing portrayal of repression and a terrifyingly convincing portrayal of the build up of a psychotic. 

Best Scene: First vlog. 

4. Josh O'Connor in Challengers - O'Connor gives a dynamic portrayal of one part of a love triangle, with a particularly effective weaponization of charisma both when it works and when it doesn't.

Best Scene: Failing to get a room. 

3. Nicholas Hoult in Nosferatu - Hoult takes the traditionally thankless role of Jonathan Harker (here named Thomas Hutter) and running it through his sheer acting talent by making the emotional and actual horror he goes through so brutally real. 

Best Scene: Ending. 

2. Cillian Murphy in Small Things Like These - Murphy delivers such a modest yet wholly impactful portrayal of a man slowly committing to action and living up to his empathy. 

Best Scene: Choosing to help. 

1. Sebastian Stan in A Different Man - Good predictions Tony, Lucas, Robert, Matt, Tahmeed, A, Ytrewq, Luke, 8000's, Jonathan & Brazinterma. Stan easily tops this list for me, despite loving many other performances. Stan gave the only performance that gave me any doubt on who my #1 should be. As Stan through his entire output in 2024 has proven to be an immense talent. Here giving such a dynamic, tangible but also hilarious realization of a one of a kind journey for a character. 

Best Scene: Pretending to be Oswald. 

Overall Ranking:

1. Adrien Brody in The Brutalist
2. Sebastian Stan in A Different Man
3. Colman Domingo in Sing Sing
4. Cillian Murphy in Small Things Like These
5. Sebastian Stan in The Apprentice
6. Nicholas Hoult in Nosferatu
7. Josh O'Connor in Challengers
8. Mike Faist in Challengers
9. George MacKay in The Beast
10. Timothée Chalamet in Dune Part II - 5
11. Ralph Fiennes in Conclave
12. Jesse Plemons in Kinds of Kindness
13. Daniel Zovatto in Woman of the Hour
14. Hugh Grant in Heretic
15. Keith Kupferer in Ghostlight 
16. Lars Eidinger in Dying
17. Nicholas Hoult in The Order
18. Joseph Quinn in A Quiet Place Day One
19. Brian Tyree Henry in The Fire Inside
20. Izaac Wang in Didi 
21. John Magaro in September 5
22. Brandon Wilson in Nickle Boys
23. Ethan Herisse in Nickle Boys - 4.5
    
24. Daniel Craig in Queer
25. Kyle Gallner in Strange Darling
26. Missagh Zareh  in The Seed of the Sacred Fig
27. James Le Gros in Good One
28. Andrew Garfield in We Live in Time
29. Josh Hartnett in Trap
30. Lakshya in Kill 
31. Jude Law in The Order
32. Jason Schwartzman in Between The Temples
33. Michael Keaton in Beetlejuice Beetlejuice 
34. Jesse Eisenberg in A Real Pain
35. Dev Patel in Monkey Man
36. Putthipong "Billkin" Assaratanakul  in How To Make Millions Before Grandma Dies
37. Nicholas Hoult in Juror No. 2
38. Pierre Niney in The Count of Monte Cristo
39. Aaron Pierre in Rebel Ridge 
40. Viggo Mortensen in The Dead Don't Hurt - 4
41. Gabriel LaBelle in Saturday Night
42. Jonno Davies in Better Man
43. Glen Powell in Hit Man
44. Ben Whitehead in Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl
45. Kieran Culkin in A Real Pain
46. Owen Teague in Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes
47. JJ "DJ Próvaí" Ó Dochartaigh in Kneecap
48. Tom Hardy in The Bikeriders
49. Austin Butler in The Bikeriders
50. Ryan Gosling in The Fall Guy
    
51. Tommy Dewey in Your Monster
52. Ben Whishaw in Paddington in Peru
    
53. Brian Tyree Henry in Transformers One
54. Taron Egerton in Carry-On
55. Chris Hemsworth in Transformers One
56. Ryan Reynolds in Deadpool & Wolverine
57. Jake Gyllenhaal in Roadhouse - 3.5
58. Dave Dastmalchian in Late Night With The Devil
59. Raul Briones in La Cocina
60. Egill Ólafsson in Touch
61. Charlie Plummer in National Anthem
62. Glen Powell in Twisters
63. George MacKay in The End
64. Joaquin Phoenix in Joker: Folie a Deux
65. Josh Brolin in Brothers
66. Eddie Peng in Black Dog
67. Paul Mescal in Gladiator II
68. Elliott Heffernan in Blitz
69. Tom Hanks in Here
70. Liam Óg "Mo Chara" Ó Hannaidh in Kneecap
71. Naoise "Móglaí Bap" Ó Cairealláin in Kneecap
72. Timothée Chalamet in A Complete Unknown 
73. Rene Perez in In The Summers - 3
74. Adam Driver in Megalopolis
75. Justice Smith in I Saw the TV Glow
76. Eddie Murphy in Beverly Hills Cop: Axle F 
77. Peter Dinklage in Brothers
78. Kelvin Harrison Jr. in Mufasa: The Lion King
79. Aaron Pierre in Mufasa: The Lion King
80. Isaac Krasner in Big Boys
81. Ryland Tews in Hundreds of Beavers - 2.5
    
82. Wagner Moura in Civil War
83. Palmi Kormakur in Touch
84. Julio Torres in Problemista  - 2

Next: 1986 Supporting after the Oscars. 

Alternate Best Actor 2024: Keith Kupferer in Ghostlight

Keith Kupferer did not receive an Oscar nomination, despite being nominated for an Independent Spirit Award, for portraying Dan Mueller in Ghostlight. 

Ghostlight follows a construction worker going through a family crisis finding an outlet through acting. 

Ghostlight gives that rare opportunity for an unlikely if not entirely unknown performer to get to take on the leading role. In this case character actor, if not even background actor Keith Kupferer who maybe you know best as the “HE SHOULD TURN HIMSELF IN” guy from The Dark Knight. The film by providing the opportunity to Kupferer to show off talents previously hidden while also giving the audience a very different protagonist than many cinematic leads. Kupferer very much looks like the part he is playing, which is a guy working construction who very much just exists within a certain state of emotional being. Kupferer’s presence is one where it doesn’t feel like he’s playing anything, he’s just being, as he embodies not only the look but the entire feel. As we see the workaday Dan goes about his day dealing with dangerous drivers as he’s working, then finding his daughter Daisy (Katherine Mallen Kupferer, Kupferer’s own daughter), having intense problems at school to the point of being potentially kicked out entirely. Kupferer when taking in her actions, which we will find out later are likely connected directly to the suicide of his son/her brother, Kupferer just presents Dan as someone taking it all in. Believably so as he just carries that same hardening, not unemotional, but just adding in the pressure in an attempt to be as passive as he can be. Something that Kupferer convincingly makes the innate state of Dan as a man who learned to get by life mostly by just keeping it all in with his emotions, and Kupferer remarkably sets up the initial state of essentially the dormant volcano that could potentially erupt. Something we see on the edges of Kupferer’s performance as he conveys just the mental exhaustion of the man that is building up. 

Something we finally see come out as one pressure too many culminates with another drive almost swerving into his construction area, where Dan physically confronts the man grabbing him and telling him to stop. Kupferer is great in the scene because it feels like such a natural release, not a good way, but just that pent up anger put forth in any direction, in this instance the most immediate. Kupferer is terrific in the way though he comes down where he is able to play the moment of realization for a moment before coming back to his typical state of just trying to hold it in himself. The reaction though also causes him to catch the eye of a very small local theater actor Rita (Dolly de Leon), who gets him to come along into their production of Romeo and Juliet that is more than a ragtag group. And if this sounds like Sing Sing, it is because it is extremely similar in plot and really character development around the play. But who cares, they’re both good in different enough ways. Part of it being Dan is far from where Clarence Maclin starts even, as Kupferer shows Dan just an alien in the setting, looking at the words and reading them with a detachment. He importantly though underlies these moments with a quiet interest as he gets pulled into the performance, helps when he is put on leave for his job due to his outburst against the driver. But Kupferer very naturally creates the seed, he’s still the guy keeping it all in but with the acting we start to see just the most generalized interest, believably as something Dan just sees as something to do at the start. 

Kupferer basically plays the cultivation of the connection well particularly as we see him spending a bit more time for his daughter as he begins to express interest in Romeo and Juliet. Kupferer’s delivery of this interest is so convincing because it is so simple as a “I guess why not” sort of way as she, unknowing why, teaches him a few things about the play and performance. Connecting further is in the acting performances where he is consistently encouraged by Rita to try harder and participate more. Something where we see in Kupferer’s early portrayal of Dan in the play as quite frankly quite bad and truly just a man reading a script nothing more. In turn we also see that exhaustion that defines the man comes out when getting involved with some of the acting exercises, where Kupferer is terrific in playing the specific tension whenever pushed to portray emotions, despite being filled with them. Kupferer so effectively creates that dynamic because he does have a hard face, yet on those edges of every word and in his eyes you do see that dormant emotion just waiting to come out with the right excuse. Something Rita cultivates from him, where he and De Leon have great non-romantic, though with maybe just the right hint of it, chemistry between them as she basically pushes him to do more. Kupferer brings this gradual increase in his performance again so naturally, because it isn’t at all sudden, it is one scene from another of the acting, as we see the man slowly lose a degree of the self-consciousness to be something other than himself. Kupferer makes it remarkable because of just how believable he is in just how tight everything is about him before this, so when we see the bits letting out it speak volumes. 

At the same time we discover that Dan’s son died in an attempted suicide pact with his girlfriend, who unlike Dan’s son, awoke from the drugs they took leading Dan to try to sue the family for what they see having been culpable. Something that we see consistently Dan does not deal with whether it is with Daisy, his wife (Tara Mallen, Kupferer’s actual wife as well), his daughter even as she goes to a therapist and even when running into his son’s surviving girlfriend. Kupferer still shows the emotion in these instances but that emotion that he pulls into himself, where the intensity in his eyes worsen and you see the pain that he wants to keep out of himself. However this comes to a head when he is literally forced to speak about his son’s death in order to complete a court deposition. A scene where Kupferer is amazing as you see him basically forced to go moment by moment in recalling finding his son. Kupferer is tremendous in the scene by the way we slowly see the pressure of the emotion penetrate his walls, although this time not just in anger but in such messy complications. Kupferer certainly brings the anger, however below that he delivers the outpouring of the heartbreak. Kupferer is so powerful in his delivery of not wishing that his son’s girlfriend had also died, but that they had both awoken. Kupferer brings such devastating honesty to each and every word in what is just a tremendous cathartic moment of the man revealing his inner torments. 

And yes just like Sing Sing we see the progression of the healthy release of emotions with the growth in performance, though I would say Sing Sing perhaps is a little more detailed in this process through Clarence Maclin’s performance, Kupferer’s work is also remarkable with what he is given in terms of the film's shorter screentime. As importantly he makes the choice in not going too far in terms of either the release of emotion or his eventual ability with Shakespeare enough to play Romeo to Rita’s Juliet. Kupferer still maintains that Dan is a guy who doesn’t wear his emotions on his sleeve, however starts presenting a man who can regulate those emotions in a healthier way. As Kupferer eases up the pressure while also being more open in his heartfelt connections with both his wife and his daughter. Kupferer makes such a gentle yet wholly winning transition, and is incredibly moving in just the simple gestures of the man allowing those positive emotions to also reveal themselves in such gentle ways. While Kupferer honestly makes one of the best cinematic depictions of Romeo though I like that while we see Kupferer still showing Dan being himself, but now being himself while finding a way to express the emotions of Romeo. His acting has improved from just reading the lines out loud, but they are lines earnestly from Dan's own emotions now. It isn't some extreme transformation but rather Kupferer makes it something special by making it a man taking his genuine trauma and funneling into his performance in a much healthier release. Kupferer delivers such a wonderful heartfelt turn here, which is so easy to appreciate because he realizes such an atypical protagonist so honestly, while also getting a little bit of a showcase for a rather atypical leading man at the same time. 

Alternate Best Actor 2024

And the Nominees Were Not:

Sebastian Stan in A Different Man

Timothée Chalamet in Dune Part II

Jesse Plemons in Kinds of Kindness

George MacKay in The Beast
 

Hugh Grant in Heretic

Feel free to predict these five, those five or both.

Cillian Murphy in Small Things Like These

Josh O'Connor in Challengers

Daniel Zovatto in Woman of the Hour

Keith Kupferer in Ghostlight

Nicholas Hoult in Nosferatu