For Your Final Consideration: Seven Oscar Hopefuls That Shouldn’t Be Overlooked

Nomination-round voting for this year’s Academy Awards ends Tuesday, February 1, which means most voters have probably already put down their pencils. But for the late deciders, we have a few final last-ditch endorsements for our favorite contenders, including actors, actresses, and an adapted screenplay that should not be ignored.

Ben Affleck, The Last Duel

Best Supporting Actor

Yes, yes, Ben Affleck already has an Oscar. In fact, he’s got two! However, he’s never won—or even been nominated for—an acting prize by the Academy Awards. It’s very possible that changes this year, thanks to The Tender Bar—a warm coming-of-age drama that’s already garnered Affleck nods from the Screen Actors Guild and (quasi-discredited) Golden Globes. And while that may be great news for George Clooney, I can’t help wishing the Academy would instead pay closer attention to the other movie Affleck released last year: Ridley Scott’s The Last Duel, a surprisingly hilarious medieval rape drama that showcases him at his insouciant best. Few films could hope to capture the calculated smirking of Affleck’s incredible paparazzi photos; The Last Duel, which casts the perennial tabloid hero as a snotty, horny nobleman with the silliest hair this side of Anton Chigurh (an Oscar winner!), does. Maybe the movie wouldn’t have bombed so hard at the box office if audiences knew what a ball Affleck is having in it. —Hillary Busis

Renate Reinsve, The Worst Person in the World

Best Actress

While international features have been making more inroads into various Oscar categories in recent years, the performances in those films are still too often overlooked. (No one from Parasite was nominated??) One obvious move toward a correction on that front would be recognition of Renate Reinsve’s invaluable work in The Worst Person in the World. The Norwegian actor has already won a Cannes best-actress prize for the film, for good reason. She is the luminous center of Joachim Trier’s aching, rambling film, sensitively and naturally depicting a young woman as she tips into 30—and tries to figure out nothing more fundamental than what she wants from her life. It’s a breathtaking performance, the kind of supernova star turn that, were it in English, would easily be a contender at the Oscars. Hopefully the Academy can follow Parasite director Bong Joon-ho’s suggestion from three years ago and look up from the subtitles to really appreciate the wonderful thing happening just past those little letters. —Richard Lawson

Jessie Buckley, The Lost Daughter

Best Supporting Actress

It feels inconceivable that the Academy would honor Olivia Colman’s haunting lead performance as present-day Leda without recognizing the other actor playing the character. But Jessie Buckley hasn’t yet eked out a major nomination for her enthralling performance as younger Leda—a woman ripped at the seams between obligations of motherhood and self-meaning. Buckley’s Leda unravels toward a choice that feels liberating and heartbreaking in equal measures—and one that Colman’s Leda is still unpeeling the layers of decades later. Just as the character cannot fully detach herself from the past, I’ve been unable to forget Buckley’s portrayal, which the Oscars would be wise to honor. —Savannah Walsh

Penélope Cruz, Parallel Mothers

Best Actress

The way Parallel Mothers teeters on the edge of psychological horror throughout Pedro Almodóvar’s Ferrante-esque investigation of maternal impulse already makes this film a crucial addition to the Complicated Bourgeoisie Mom Canon. But Penélope Cruz is also simply excellent at mussing up the archetype of the chic working single mom with all those haunted stares furtively beamed out from under the cover of perfectly coiffed curtain bangs. You don’t know whether to feel sorry for her, or completely scared of what she could do. The story of the judgment of King Solomon never gave us much intel on the actual women involved, but the tensile force of Cruz’s performance as the conflicted Janis gives us an idea of the primal calculations at stake. —Delia Cai

Rachel Zegler, West Side Story

Best Actress

What were you doing when you were 18 years old? Probably nothing as impressive as starring in a Disney remake of one of the most iconic musicals of all time. Rachel Zegler, now 20, not only pulls off the role of Maria in West Side Story with the movie-star grace of her predecessor Natalie Wood but she brings a more authentic and rich version of the character to life with her incredible voice and stage presence. Sometimes an actor who is making her feature-film debut hasn’t “paid their dues” in the eyes of voters, but Zegler deserves to be in the spotlight for delivering on such a high-pressure role that holds the entire film together. —Rebecca Ford

Colman Domingo, Zola

Best Supporting Actor

I still can’t shake Colman Domingo’s smile in Zola—that chilling, menacing grin laced with a kind of actorly joy. It’s the sort of scene-stealing role the veteran performer has certainly earned, having worked so consistently across film, TV, and stage, no matter the quality of the part, for decades. Hollywood has started catching up to his magnetism, from that rigorous two-hander with Zendaya in Euphoria’s first pandemic special to the rich ensemble work in recent Oscar-winning movies like If Beale Street Could Talk and Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom. In Zola, surrounded by juicy performances though he is, Domingo runs the show as X, “roommate” to our titular hero’s mysterious new friend, Stefani (Riley Keough), later revealed to be her pimp. On a road trip from hell, Domingo sparkles as the scariest thing in the car, yet he’s so relentlessly compelling—strange accent and all—that even still, you can’t take your eyes off of him. In a few years, we’ll be talking about Domingo as overdue for his first Oscar nod—unless voters take appropriate action now. —David Canfield

Rebecca Hall, Passing

Best Adapted Screenplay

A first-time director nominated in that category by the Directors Guild of America Awards, Rebecca Hall has received her share of recognition as the director of this quietly brilliant period piece. But her work adapting Nella Larsen’s 1929 novel, sharply observed and frank in the way it deals with a complicated relationship between two women in 1920s Harlem, deserves more celebration, and could work its way into a category currently dominated by more large-scale adaptations. Translating the interiority of a novel for the screen is an eternal challenge for screenwriters, particularly with a novel as emotionally complicated as Passing, and Hall made it look as elegant as the film’s sumptuous black and white photography. Voters ought to take notice as well. —Katey Rich

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