Oscars 2027 Best Supporting Actor Predictions: Nominees, Contenders, & Winner

Actors like Andrew Garfield and Robert Pattinson are vying for a Best Supporting Actor nomination at the Oscars 2027. Here's where the race stands.

Published Oct 8, 2026, 11:30 AM EDT

Cooper Hood is the Associate Editor for all new movie releases, in theaters and on streaming. In addition to writing articles about these titles and upcoming releases, he also oversees content planning for each, ensuring that ScreenRant continues to cover major releases for months after their release.

He has written various reviews for ScreenRant that appear on Rotten Tomatoes, coordinated Oscars and San Diego Comic-Con coverage, appeared on CNN to talk about Mission: Impossible - The Final Reckoning, and done select interviews with talent over the years.

Best Supporting Actor is shaping up to be one of the biggest categories at the 2027 Oscars, with many actors vying for nominations and a smaller group angling for wins. This year, some of Hollywood's most well-known and popular stars are competing to win the award Sean Penn took home last year for his villainous turn in One Battle After Another.

So far, many of this year's Best Supporting Actor contenders have been unseen by the masses. Audiences have gotten to witness John Leguizamo and Robert Pattinson's scene-stealing performances in The Odyssey. Many saw Colman Domingo in Michael, while John Goodman and Riz Ahmed hope to make waves after Digger's release.

But with the fall movie season picking up and more movie festivals happening, several other contenders are rising to the top. These performances come from former Oscar nominees and previous winners, in a few cases. That leaves lots of room for the race for Best Supporting Actor to shift as the year progresses.

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Now that we're in October, ScreenRant's Oscars coverage is picking up, which has brought me to offering my initial thoughts on where things stand for this category. A lot can and will change as March 14's 99th Academy Awards approaches, so I'll be updating this piece as the season unfolds.

The Best Supporting Actor Nomination Frontrunners

With all the Oscar expectations The Odyssey has, its debut immediately put John Leguizamo in contention for Best Supporting Actor. He is vital to the film as Eumaeus, a blind servant for Odysseus. Leguizamo delivers an emotional performance that helps turn Eumaeus into the heart of Nolan's epic. Nothing has happened in the months since to knock the actor out of a frontrunner spot.

Edward Norton is no stranger to the Oscars, having been nominated four times before, but never winning. His charming, smug performance in The Invite looks to have a good chance of earning him his fifth Oscar nomination. The film's small ensemble leaves him with a lot of screen time, and he doesn't waste a moment of it.

The rest of the frontrunners come from movies that have yet to officially come out: Andrew Garfield (Artificial), Paul Giamatti (The Debut), and Sam Rockwell (Wild Horse Nine). All three delivered performances critics haven't stopped raving about following their respective premieres at the New York Film Festival, Telluride Film Festival, and Venice International Film Festival.

Each actor is a multi-time Oscar nominee already, except for Leguizamo (who is seeking his first nomination), proving voters are not shy about giving them their flowers. Garfield was last recognized for tick, tick... BOOM! in 2022, Giamatti contended for The Holdovers in 2024, and Norton was nominated for A Complete Unknown in 2025.

Rockwell is the only one in the entire group who is already an Oscar winner, having won Best Supporting Actor nine years ago for Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri. His reunion with director Martin McDonagh has put him in the thick of this race once again. But these five names are not locked in as the final nominees.

Others In The Mix For Best Supporting Actor

Melinda Sue Gordon / © Universal Pictures / Courtesy Everett Collection

Robert Pattinson has given himself two opportunities to be nominated for Best Supporting Actor this year, not to mention him being in the mix for an Oscars 2027 Best Actor nomination. He's got two bites at the apple thanks to his villainous turns in The Odyssey and Dune: Part Three. No one has seen the latter in full yet, but his Scytale should be a great contrast to his sniveling performance as Antinous.

As Pattinson searches for his first Oscar nomination, that's the same boat longtime actors Steve Buscemi (Wild Horse Nine) and John Goodman (Digger) find themselves in. The Big Lebowski co-stars have been in several acclaimed features, but they've fallen short of being recognized for this work individually. It'd be great if that changed for one or both stars finally this year.

Conversely, some legends who have history with the Academy are looking for more. Colman Domingo is looking for his third Oscar nomination in four years with Michael. Guy Pearce is going after his second nomination in three years by playing Rupert Murdoch in Danny Boyle's Ink. Longtime actors like Steve Buscemi (Wild Horse Nine) and John Goodman (Digger) are still hoping to get their first Oscar nomination.

Contemporary stars like Riz Ahmed (Digger), Adam Driver (Paper Tiger), and Jeremy Strong (The Social Reckoning) are others who have had recent nomination luck and are in the mix once again. The category could also produce breakthrough nominations for lesser-known stars. Netflix's Best Picture contender La Bola Negra could generate a nod for Guitarricadelafuente. Amazon MGM is even pushing Rocky's performer James Ortiz from Project Hail Mary.

Predicted Best Supporting Actor Winner

In many circles, Giamatti has been tipped as the performance to beat for Best Supporting Actor this year. He came up just short of winning for The Holdovers, is extremely well-liked within the industry, and has the overdue narrative that could help keep him at the forefront of this race until March. But for now, I'm predicting an Andrew Garfield win.

Admittedly, the timing of this article could be swaying things a bit in his favor. Artificial's first reactions out of NYFF just dropped. Many aspects of Luca Guadagnino's movie have been praised, but Garfield's performance as OpenAI CEO Sam Altman is one of the most highlighted parts.

The strength of his performance could be enough for Garfield to get the win, but that is not the only thing factoring into this pick. Artificial is positioned to be one of the most talked-about and timely movies of this awards season. If the movie and Garfield's performance are as good as advertised, Amazon MGM dumping the film due to its AI partnerships will look worse. An AI-fearing Hollywood could shine a big spotlight on it all by making Garfield the Best Supporting Actor winner this year.

We'll get a better sense of Garfield's standing in this race once Artificial is seen by more people and some precursors start to happen. He could very well falter while Giamatti or Rockwell rise to the top, leaving this Oscars 2027 category very much still open.