Best Supporting Actress
Cate Blanchett, Bandits
Jennifer Connelly, A Beautiful Mind
Helen Mirren, Gosford Park
Marisa Tomei, In the Bedroom
Kate Winslet, Iris
Yet another really tough category to choose just five nominees: Connelly seems to be the front runner with her Golden Globe win as the patient wife in A Beautiful Mind. Many are touting Mirren's self-sacrificing servant in Gosford Park as the stand out in a cast of thousands.
Also making the cut are Tomei's performance as a mother with a rocky past in Bedroom and Winslet's portrayal of the young and feisty Iris Murdoch in Iris. Blanchett has to make the list due to the sheer volume of work she produced last year (the Billy Bob Thornton syndrome), and it's her hilarious take on a woman torn between two men in Bandits that stands out as her best.
A few others to consider could be Maggie Smith's acerbic matron in Gosford Park, Anjelica Huston and Gwyneth Paltrow as mother and daughter in The Royal Tenenbaums and possibly Cameron Diaz's jealous girlfriend in Vanilla Sky--although that's really pushing the envelope, even if she did get a Screen Actor's Guild nomination.
Best Supporting Actor
Jim Broadbent, Iris
Steve Buscemi, Ghost World
Hayden Christensen, Life As A House
Ben Kingsley, Sexy Beast
Jon Voight, Ali
Certainly an eclectic bunch of actors, don't you think?
Broadbent leads the pack with several critic's awards and the Golden Globe for his portrayal of the elderly John Bayley, Iris Murdoch's long-suffering husband, in Iris. However, Kingsley as the evil gangster in Sexy Beast and Buscemi as the pathetic loner in Ghost World, have also been racking up points.
Voight's amazing turn as sports announcer Howard Cosell in Ali should give the veteran actor his fourth nomination. Rounding out my list is 20-year-old newcomer Christensen, for his performance as the troubled teen in Life As A House, which gives the category some fresh young meat for the voters to work with.
Ian McKellen may make the list for playing the wizard Gandalf in Lord of the Rings, a part he seemed born for. (It would be the only acting nod that the film might receive.) Jude Law's robotic gigolo in A.I. Artificial Intelligence has also been thrown around as a possibility, and wouldn't it be fun if Carl Reiner got a nomination for his hysterical con man in Ocean's Eleven? I think so.