AFT Awards: Best Actor in a Supporting Role

This is the third category of the 6th Annual AFT Film Awards to be announced. The AFT Awards are my own personal choices for the best in film of each year and the best in television of each season. The AFT Film Awards include the traditional Oscar categories and a number of additional specific honors. Nominees are pictured in the order I’ve ranked them and drawn from a pool of approximately 95 films. Click here to see previous years of this category.

Honorable mentions:
Bill Nighy (The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel), Tom Wilkinson (The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel), Joel David Moore (Grassroots), Bill Murray (Moonrise Kingdom), Bruce Willis (Moonrise Kingdom), William H. Macy (The Sessions), Jan Josef Liefers (Simon and the Oaks), Javier Bardem (Skyfall)

Runners-up:
Dwight Henry (Beasts of the Southern Wild)
Jason Clarke (Zero Dark Thirty)
Tom Hardy (The Dark Knight Rises)
Alan Arkin (Argo)
Edward Norton (Moonrise Kingdom)

The winner:
Christoph Waltz (Django Unchained) dominated an uneven film with a thunderous, hilarious performance that shows that he can do wonders with any material that he is given.

Other nominees:
Samuel West (Hyde Park on Hudson) managed to create a compelling, endearing King George in the shadow of Colin Firth’s Oscar winning turn and opposite Bill Murray’s FDR. Leonardo DiCaprio (Django Unchained) played against type in a deliciously evil role, thoroughly enjoying every moment of it. Philip Seymour Hoffman (The Master) got serious for a disturbing turn as a cult leader caught up in the allure of his vision. Tommy Lee Jones (Lincoln) effortlessly delivered a film-stealing performance in a cast crowded with well-known actors as a sarcastic, outspoken abolitionist.