Oscars 2014: Predicting 10 Best Supporting Actor Nominees

4. Daniel Bruhl - The Fifth Estate

You may think you are not familiar with the Spanish-born, German-citizen (his mother hails from Spain while his father is a known German director), but chances are you've seen Daniel Bruhl's works and didn't even know it. Particularly if you're a fan of Quentin Tarantino's work (and who isn't?), you'll remember Mr. Bruhl for his terrific performance as Frederick Zoller, German war hero turned movie star who romantically pursued the secretly Jewish cinema owner, Shosanna (Melanie Laurent), to his own demise in Inglourious Basterds. If you somehow have still not seen Inglourious Basterds and are unaware of some of Mr. Bruhl's other mainstream work (such as The Bourne Ultimatum), fear not, you will know Daniel Bruhl's name soon enough. Bruhl is scheduled to appear in at least three movies this year and not in insignificant roles either. He will be a central figure in German Intelligence trying to ascertain the true nature of a recent Muslim immigrant in Anton Corbijn's spy thriller, A Most Wanted Man, and he will star as F-1 champion driver Niki Lauda in Ron Howard's biopic, Rush. Bruhl's best chance at garnering the attention of awards bodies though will likely come with his portrayal of Daniel Domscheit-Berg, the early supporter and friend of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange who eventually went his separate ways with the world's most famous hackivist and wrote a tell-all book of which The Fifth Estate is partially based on. Playing the partner of a revolutionary leader, whether they lead a massively influential political movement or an inconsequential small-time gang of street thugs, is often ripe dramatic material and an opportune chance for an actor to show their stuff. I believe Bruhl has the ability to be an actor of some importance, but whether this particular role can secure him his first Oscar nomination will largely depend on the reception of the film itself. The film is being written by former The West Wing writer Josh Singer, which sounds promising enough, but the film's director is none other than Bill Condon. Mr. Condon is coming off double duty on closing out the wildly popular tween film franchise, Twilight, directing the series' final two features, The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn Part 1 and The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn Part 2. It's not exactly the typical "previous features" an Oscar-contending director has in their oeuvre, but Condon has met with some Oscar success in the past with films such as Gods and Monsters, Kinsey, and Dreamgirls. At the very least though, I think it would be fair to categorize the director as inconsistent, which puts a big question mark on the awards prospects of The Fifth Estate. If, however, the film receives warm critical reception and turns out to be bona fide Oscar player, mark my words, Daniel Bruhl will be name-checked by more than a few awards bodies.
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Contributor

A film fanatic at a very young age, starting with the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle movies and gradually moving up to more sophisticated fare, at around the age of ten he became inexplicably obsessed with all things Oscar. With the incredibly trivial power of being able to chronologically name every Best Picture winner from memory, his lifelong goal is to see every Oscar nominated film, in every major category, in the history of the Academy Awards.