2027 Oscars Best Supporting Actor Predictions: Winner, Runner-Up And Other Contenders

After Walter Brennan became the first-ever winner in the Best Supporting Actor category at the Academy Awards for his role in 1936's "Come and Get It," he went on to win the Oscar twice more ... and paved the way for all the winners who followed him. Since then, a number of acclaimed performers and household names have taken home the Oscar for Best Supporting Actor, including George Clooney (for "Syriana"), Morgan Freeman (for "Million Dollar Baby"), Robin Williams ("Good Will Hunting"), Christoph Waltz ("Inglourious Basterds"), Christian Bale ("The Fighter"), and Robert Downey Jr. ("Oppenheimer"). The most recent winner — Sean Penn, who took home his third acting Oscar for his perfectly bizarre turn as Colonel Steven J. Lockjaw in Paul Thomas Anderson's "One Battle After Another" in early 2026 — will be unseated in 2027 when someone new takes home the award at the 99th Academy Awards. So, who will it be?

This sort of guessing game is in no way a science, and things shift and change a lot during the lead-up to film's biggest night. Still, I can make some educated guesses. Aside from the presumptive winner and the possible spoiler (or "runner-up"), the other names who feel destined to be included in the Best Supporting Actor category are laid out here in alphabetical order by last name. Let's make some guesses, shall we?

Robert Pattinson is, without question, one of our best and most audacious actors, and he's been handily proving that ever since he got his start in the "Twilight" movies (and, to a lesser but still important extent, "Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire"). Still, he hasn't earned a single Oscar nomination, and let me be among the many to proclaim: that sucks! It's entirely possible that Pattinson will end up taking advantage of the Academy's recently introduced rule that an actor can be nominated in both the lead and supporting categories, because I'm not ruling out that he gets one for his staggering portrayal of "To Catch a Predator" host Chris Hansen in Lance Oppenheim's stunning "Primetime." He also, however, has a very, very good chance of being nominated for playing Antinuous in "The Odyssey" ... and winning.

The cast of Christopher Nolan's masterful adaptation of "The Odyssey" is full of talented and famous folks, but Pattinson's unctuous, reprehensible suitor Antinuous, who's hanging around the Ithacan palace and drinking all of its wine as he tries to woo Penelope (Anne Hathaway) in her husband Odysseus' (Matt Damon) absence, is a real highlight. From the way he hits a hard "B" on the word "beggars" (which has already been memed half to death, thank God) to his refusal to actually participate in the third-act carnage while he frantically yells instructions to his minions, Pattinson's performance as Antinuous would be cartoonish in the wrong hands. Instead, he's hilarious and sinister all at once. Give the king of weird accents an Oscar, please!

"The Social Reckoning" is ostensibly a sequel to "The Social Network," but the two shouldn't even be mentioned in the same sentence — because "Reckoning" fails soundly where "Network" suceeds at every turn. If there is a 2026 movie that's a spiritual sequel of sorts to "The Social Network," though, it's "Artificial," Luda Guadagnino's take on the story of OpenAI founder and CEO Sam Altman. Though Andrew Garfield plays Altman himself, the movie really belongs to Ilya Sutskever ("Anora" standout and Oscar nominee Yura Borisov), who founded OpenAI and ultimately fired Altman from the company. That's why Garfield's performance as Altman will likely find its way into the Supporting Actor category, and despite Robert Pattinson's outstanding work on "The Odyssey," Garfield has a real shot at winning.

If we lived in a good and fair world, Garfield would already have two Oscars: one for playing Facebook co-founder Eduardo Saverin in "The Social Network" (his line read of "Sorry, my Prada's at the cleaners" should have clinched that one) and one for playing "Rent" scribe Jonathan Larson in the wholly underrated musical "Tick, Tick... Boom!" As it stands, though, Garfield has a good chance at winning one for "Artificial," even if it's long overdue. His portrayal of Altman is nuanced and brilliant, which is exactly what we've come to expect from this compelling actor. Garfield will win an Academy Award at some point in his career, but "Artificial" represents a real possibility.

It's sort of wild that Paul Giamatti doesn't have an Oscar, if I'm being perfectly frank. It's also weird that he's only been nominated for two acting Oscars — Best Supporting Actor for "Cinderella Man" and Best Actor for "The Holdovers," neither of which he won — and as much as I hate the idea and concept of a "career Oscar," Academy voters could very well decide that enough is enough and reward Giamatti for his turn in Jesse Eisenberg's second film as a director, "The Debut." Alongside Julianne Moore as housewife Mona Friedman, who anxiously auditions for a role in a local New Jersey production of "Nosy Neighbors," Giamatti plays Jerry Blankenbuehler, a formidable director who strikes fear into the hearts of his actors. Under Jerry's supervision, Mona is determined to become a truly great performer, and it's a testament to Giamatti's strength as a performer that he can perfectly complement someone as dynamic and committed as Moore.

Again, Giamatti ... should have an Oscar by now, if not for "The Holdovers" than for any number of films, and if he gets nominated, he could cruise to victory on that good will alone. (That's not meant to demean his performance, which is excellent.) Plus, not for nothing? It would be sort of wild if Eisenberg, in director mode, managed to secure two Oscars in as many years — in the same category, no less — for his supporting actors after Kieran Culkin took home the trophy in 2025 for Eisenberg's directorial debut "A Real Pain."

You know what's ludicrous and, dare I say, wrong? John Leguizamo has never been nominated for an Oscar. This, honestly, stinks, and he should have at least made it into the Best Supporting Actor race for the Best Picture nominee "Moulin Rouge!" (where he physically suffered and struggled performing on his knees and in custom made braces as the famously diminutive French artist Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, all while managing to deliver an outstanding turn), but it's better late than never, right? Despite the packed cast of "The Odyssey," many of whom will be duking it out for one of the five spots in their respective acting categories, I had to pay homage to Leguizamo's truly wonderful turn as Eumaeus, a blind swineherd who's loyal to Odysseus (Matt Damon) and does his best to oversee Ithaca while the king is missing in action. In Leguizamo's capable hands, Eumaeus is funny, fascinating, and has depth despite his status as a secondary character, and he often feels like the beating heart of the film writ large.

Again, I'm actually pretty incensed that Leguizamo hasn't been nominated for a single solitary Oscar for the past several decades, so it's time for the Academy to go ahead and right this honestly egregious wrong. Yes, Leguizamo's co-star Robert Pattinson might be the front-runner as of this writing, but never rule Leguizamo out. He's beloved, he's talented, and he's an industry stalwart who could win not just for his performance but for his career, assuming he does get nominated.

Edward Norton is a phenomenal performer, but I tend to prefer when he gets a little silly with it (his performance in "Moonrise Kingdom" as a shorts-wearing scout leader comes to mind), and his sense of comedic timing is on perfect display in Olivia Wilde's third film as a director, "The Invite." Alongside Penélope Cruz, Norton plays a cool, irreverent guy "named" Hawk (there's an incredible reveal about his name partway through the film's narrative) whose loud lovemaking with Cruz's Pina is a sore subject between their hosts for the evening, unhappy husband and wife Joe and Angela (Seth Rogen and Wilde). Norton's Hawk is self-serious, confident, and alluring. To Joe, he represents everything Joe is not, and when the two couples come to a strange arrangement, Angela can barely disguise her excitement.

Norton has remained excellent for decades, and he's got three Best Supporting Actor nominations to show for it (for "Primal Fear," "Birdman," and "A Complete Unknown") as well as one lead nomination for "American History X." I think he's got a very good shot at finding a spot in the 2027 race for Supporting Actor, and honestly, he deserves to add a fourth Supporting nomination to his collection ... but whether or not he can actually pull out a win is anybody's guess.

The 99th Academy Awards are set to air on March 14, 2027 — and nominations will be announced on January 21, 2027.