Previous Scores for Year in Advance Guesswork
2003: (1 for 5) Bridges, Finney, Honsou, Isaacs, MacGregor -almost 2 for 5 since Finney probably just missed...
2002: (2 for 5) Harris, Molina, Newman, Quaid, Broadbent -almost 3 for 5 since Quaid was a major snub...
2001: (2 for 5) McKellen, Leguizamo, Landau, Sizemore, Voight

 

April Fool's Predictions for Best Supporting Actor and why I chose them...
David Carradine KILL BILL, Volume 2 never nominated	Stephen Dillane KING ARTHUR never nominated	Jamie Foxx COLLATERAL never nominated	Anthony Hopkins PROOF / ALEXANDER noms / 1 win	Stanley Tucci THE TERMINAL never nominated
Call this a bizarre call if you will but even though the first installment was shunned, Tarantino can usually work magic with his actors. Carradine is a regular fixture on the red carpet. Maybe they'll want to finally show him some AMPAS love.	Merlin is a legendary role and Stephen Dillane is a fine actor. A magic combo? Maybe. Maybe not. A lot depends on the film. But this rumored- to-be more realistic take on Arthur and the Roundtable could be good. If so Dillane rises up to acclaim.	Foxx was good in Ali and might have been nom'ed if he'd already been established and the film had been well loved. Mann is a fine director and I expect this movie to do well. It's a random call but supporting lists are impossible to see a year in advance.	Probably the easiest guess. Proof is a great stage play and this role, if the movie doesn't bomb, is ideal for an older respected actor to get nominated by playing. If that doesn't gel there's always Oliver Stone's Alexander.	Stanley Tucci would be an ideal candidate for one of those "we've always loved you" type nomination that sometimes find character actors when they finally get a big role. This Spielberg film might provide that for him.

Six Alternates: I was tempted to throw these in and everyone is just at likely from a distance (the reasons why I think they could be real candidates listed below)
Joshua Close A HOME AT THE END OF THE WORLD never nominated	Adrien Brody THE VILLAGE 1 nom / 1 win	Clive Owen CLOSER never nominated	Morgan Freeman AN UNFINISHED LIFE noms	Jim Broadbent VANITY FAIR 1 nom / 1 win	Patrick Wilson THE PHANTOM OF THE OPERA / THE ALAMO never nominated
Nobody knows who he is yet but I believe he's playing the AIDS -inflected character in this (not sure because the names are somewhat changed from the book) and you know how much they love dying gay men at the Academy.	Brody's career trajectory is still very fluid. It could go any which way. What kind of career is it going to be? He supposedly has a showcase role here but since we know nothing about it -it's a wild guess to include him in the alternates.	If Jude and Julia are considered lead in this adaptation of the Patrick Marber play, than Natalie and Clive could be reduced to supporting even though it's a quartet type of deal. Clive is bound to be recognized eventually. The question is when.	People seem convinced that this is an Oscar film. It could be --after all Hallström films often appeal to Oscar voters. Just not me. But I've yet to hear anything about Freeman's role in this so I'm totally iffy about including him.	This is wishful thinking perhaps since you can never tell from a cast list how large Broadbent's role will be. But he's always so top notch that we can pray he gets a real chance to shine again and returns to the big Oscar show pronto.	Wilson made his mark on Broadway as a new musical star (The Full Monty, Oklahoma) and then wow'ed in Angels in America for HBO, indicating he's more of a character actor than his very handsome looks suggested. I smell a bright future for him on and offscreen.

The Other Supporting Men of the Year. Before We See the Films, Everyone is a Possibility
Fele Martinez BAD EDUCATION never nominated	Chris O Donnell KINSEY never nominated	Liev Schreiber THE MANCHURIAN CANDIDATE never nominated	Billy Bob Thornton THE ALAMO ? noms in acting	Orlando Bloom TROY never nominated
Javier Camara BAD EDUCATION never nominated	Geoffrey Rush SWIMMING UPSTREAM 3 noms / 1 win	Mark Wahlberg I HEART HUCKABEES never nominated	Allesandro Nivola THE CLEARING never nominated	Linus Roache THE FORGOTTEN never nominated
Jon Voight THE MANCHURIAN CANDIDATE noms / 1 win	Damian Lewis AN UNFINISHED LIFE never nominated	Jeremy Irons BEING JULIA 1 nom / 1 win	Dustin Hoffman J.M. BARRIE'S NEVERLAND / I HEART HUCKABEES noms / 2 wins	Eric Bana TROY never nominated
Gary Sinise THE FORGOTTEN 1 nomination	Ryan Gosling STAY / THE NOTEBOOK never nominated	Mark Ruffalo ETERNAL SUNSHINE OF THE SPOTLESS MIND never nominated	William Hurt THE V ILLAGE noms / 1 win	Peter Stormare BIRTH never nominated
Paul Bettany DOGVILLE never nominated	Alan Cumming THE PHANTOM OF THE OPERA never nominated		Jared Leto ALEXANDER never nominated	Val Kilmer ALEXANDER never nominated
Josh Lucas AN UNFINISHED LIFE never nominated	Owen Wilson THE LIFE AQUATIC never nominated	Dominic West THE FORGOTTEN never nominated	Tom Wilkinson ETERNAL SUNSHINE / A GOOD WOMAN 1 nomination	Elijah Wood ETERNAL SUNSHINE never nominated
Tom Hanks THE POLAR EXPRESS 5 noms / 2 wins	Cameron Bright BIRTH / ULTRAVIOLET / GODSEND never nominated	Bruce Campbell THE WOODS never nominated	Allen Covert SPANGLISH never nominated	Omar Epps ALFIE never nominated
Martin Csokas ASYLUM never nominated	Daniel Craig THE MOTHER never nominated	Sean Bean TROY never nominated	Brendan Gleeson TROY never nominated	Jonathan Rhys Meyers VANITY FAIR never nominated
Chi McBride THE TERMINAL never nominated	Hugh Bonneville ASYLUM never nominated	Jonathan Pryce DE-LOVELY / THE BROTHERS GRIMM never nominated	Keith Allen DE-LOVELY never nominated	Jon Foster DOOR IN THE FLOOR never nominated
Alfred Molina SPIDERMAN 2 never nominated	Sam Shephard THE NOTEBOOK never nominated	Jason Schwartzmann I HEART HUCKABEES / SHOPGIRL never nominated	Peter O Toole TROY nominations	Gabriel Byrne VANITY FAIR never nominated
Ioan Gruffud KING ARTHUR never nominated	Rupert Everett STAGE BEAUTY never nominated	Dennis Farina COLLATERAL never nominated	Richard Gere BEE SEASON never nominated	Danny Huston BIRTH never nominated

Last Year's Race