By Tom O'Brien 

Welcome to the second in our NBP series of the 10 best early Oscar contenders in each of the four acting categories. Last week, we looked at the early contenders for Best Supporting Actress before the fall film festivals kicked into high gear. This week, we turn our attention to Best Supporting Actor.
 
At this moment, here are the 10 men who, as we see it, stand the best chance of hearing their name on nomination morning. Click below to see the top contenders in alphabetical order.

By Ryan C. Showers 
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We made it through the dreadful early-year releases, slogged our way through the empty films slated in the spring, and now the big, blockbuster summer releases – also known as the prime time for movies that will now campaign for “Best Popular Film” at the Oscars – are starting to wrap up. In fairness, the majority of films with value released in the first two-thirds of the year have 15 minutes of fame at the time of their release but rarely encompass a lasting reputation to compete in awards races. Most the films the public spends money on for the majority of the year won’t see the light of any golden accolades – again, except now in the “Best Popular Film” category, recently added to the Academy Awards. Quality films, Oscar buzz, and award season contenders are revving up to take over the industry in the coming months. That being said, there are opportunities for successful and critically acclaimed early-released films to make an appearance during the long months of award season.

A pocket for such opportunities is the Golden Globes Comedy/Musical categories. Though those categories typically have their fair share of late-released awards bait and film-festival darlings, the Hollywood Foreign Press Association (HPFA) sometimes ushers in movies that made their mark with critics or at the box office early in the year.

By Tom O'Brien 

As stated yesterday by Matt, we will be continuing to provide you with the best Oscar coverage we possibly can for the 2018 Awards Season. With that said, each week in August, we'll take on the four acting categories and try to determine the 10 performers who, at this moment, stand the best chance at scoring those coveted Oscar nominations.

We'll start this week with the already-hot race for Best Supporting Actress race. In alphabetical order, here, as we see it, are the top contenders.

​By Will Mavity 

​We're halfway through 2018. Insane right? And we still don’t have a good idea as to what our major Oscar players are going to be. In fact, the rest of the year looks downright bleak, at least in comparison to previous years. We asked yesterday on Episode 98 of the podcast if there are any Oscars contenders from the first half of the year that have already released? And the answer to that is yes! Not as many as some past years, but we’ve got a few likely nominees already in play regardless.

For the sake of realism, we will only be discussing films that have viable chances of getting nominated. So as much as you might want to see "American Animals" get nominated for Best Picture, there is a 0% chance of that happening. Instead, we’re focusing on films that have genuine chances (Limited to the categories where they could actually contend).

Also note, we are only looking at films that have already had a theatrical release. So, although "BlackKklansman," for example, has already premiered at Cannes or "Eighth Grade" at Sundance and they look to be a contenders, they have not officially been ‘released.'

​By Will Mavity 

A few weeks ago, the Academy announced some long overdue changes to its Original Score and Original Song Categories. After years of many Original Score nominees snagging nominations based on the credentials of their composers (“Skyfall,” “Passengers,” “Star Wars: The Last Jedi” etc), The Academy will instead institute a method, not unlike that used for determining Visual Effects and Makeup nominees. Academy music members will attend a presentation of 15 shortlisted films where scores will be performed along with onscreen footage. Presumably, we will end up with a more creative set of nominees as a result of this process. 

Only time will tell which 15 films will end up on this year’s shortlist (And just as with the VFX and Makeup shortlists, surely there will be some irritating snubs), but for now, here are the 15 scores we at Next Best Picture are most excited about for the rest of this year (And no…these are not the 15 scores I am predicting to make the list).

By Josh Williams ​

​Jason Reitman is a filmmaker who exploded onto the filmmaking scene and grew steadily in stature with both critics and audiences until his career slowly fizzled out. Now, with one highly acclaimed release currently playing in theaters ("Tully") and another high profile potential awards contender being released later in the year ("The Front Runner"), we have to ask the question: Is Jason Reitman finally coming back to reclaim the Oscar he should've won for "Up In The Air?" The way things are looking, he could be in a prime position to do more than that.

By Daniel Howat 

It’s been a staggering ten years since “Iron Man” debuted in theaters in 2008, launching one of the most successful franchises in film history. In the years since the Marvel Cinematic Universe launched, so much has changed in the film industry. Numerous studios have tried to recreate the concept of having an interconnected universe of films. Superhero films have continued to pervade our culture, as evidenced by the massive anticipation of the upcoming “Avengers: Infinity War.”

The franchise has raked in the money over the years, but the MCU hasn’t had a great deal of success at the Academy Awards. From ten total Oscar nominations, the franchise has netted zero wins. Will that change in the near future? Let’s look back at the awards history, category by category, of the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

​By Daniel Howat

​The 90th Academy Awards are officially finished, with “The Shape Of Water” finally taking home the big prize. Of course, it’s never too early to look forward to next year’s contenders! Okay, maybe it is too early, but stick with me anyway. Let’s look ahead to some potentially great films from 2018 that might be in contention at the 91st Academy Awards.

Click below to see the films we think have the most Oscar potential as we move through 2018.

By Matt Neglia

We have reached the finish line. You've read my predictions on the acting, screenplay, other best film, audio and visual categories for the 90th Academy Awards. Now, it is time to dive deep one last time into the categories of Best Director and Best Picture. One category is all sewn up while the other could not be any more unpredictable. Give it a look while I do my absolute best to predict what is going to happen in these two categories tomorrow night!

​Click below to see my analysis and predictions for these two categories.

By Matt Neglia

You've read my predictions on the acting, screenplay, other best film and audio categories for the 90th Academy Awards. Now, it is time to dive deep into the visual categories which consist of Best Makeup & Hairstyling, Best Costume Design, Best Production Design, Best Visual Effects, Best Cinematography and Best Film Editing as I finalize my predictions for the Oscars this Sunday.

​Click below to see analysis and predictions for these six categories.

By Liam Heffernan​

Following 13 unsuccessful Oscar nominations, Roger Deakins is now one of the unluckiest nominees of all time, and arguably the most overdue of this year’s nominees. With his latest film "Blade Runner 2049," we need to ask: is it finally his time?​ The stats say yes and yet, we are still skeptical.

By Matt Neglia

Just as I did yesterday with the acting, screenplay and other best film categories, I am now going to dive deep into my predictions for the four audio categories at the Oscars - Best Original Score,Best Original Song, Best Sound Editing and Best Sound Mixing.

​Click below to see analysis and predictions for these four categories.

By Paul Hardister

Countless people who visit Hollywood & Highland from across the globe pass the names of Best Pictures gone by. The Academy selected an exceptional list of nominees this year for consideration to be next to join film history. Although I have many favorites, the movie I would place in the time capsule outside the Dolby Theatre is “Get Out”. It is also the film which is being unfairly written off by many people as a film which won't win Best Picture. While their arguments make sense in a vacuum where the old rules of the Academy certainly applied, they are failing to see that the film industry has changed and is continuing to change. That change is enough to suggest that "Get Out" stands a far greater chance to win Best Picture than most people are willing to let on.

By Matt Neglia

Just as I did yesterday with the acting and screenplay categories, I am now going to dive into my predictions for three categories which recognizes different divisions of "Best Picture" - Animation, Foreign Language and Documentary. These three categories feel like locks to me but maybe you'll think differently.

​Click below to see analysis and predictions for these three categories.

By Ryan C. Showers

​Before the preferential ballot, predicting the Oscar Best Picture was simpler. The film everyone loved would win in a plurality vote, and that would be that. We have that movie, one that has collected the high-profile prizes of TIFF, Golden Globe, SAG, and BAFTA Best Picture awards, in “Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri.” It’s the film that the most people are passionate about. But it’s also a movie everyone is skeptical to predict as a solid winner due to the fact that controversy has surrounded it in the past, in particular, after its successes at the Golden Globes and SAG. The theory goes, the controversy will prevent it from doing well on the preferential ballot. Most people want to throw it out of the conversation entirely because it is divisive, meaning voters will either have it ranked in the first or last places on their ballots, making it unable to win the category overall.

However, a few weeks have passed since the Internet’s rampage went viral on the film, and the intense hatred has dwindled down to a simmer. In fact, it coincided with the fact that Martin McDonagh did not receive a Best Director nomination for the film. Since then, the think-pieces haven’t been as abundant – maybe people on Twitter feel less threatened by it without a directing nomination? So, over the past few weeks, the film has flown under the radar (Regaining some of its underdog narrative), and perhaps many voters have forgotten the extremity of the film’s polarization.