3. Adrien Brody
The Pianist was a very emotive and powerful film and is the home of Adrien Brody's finest acting performance, but nobody honestly thought it was the best male performance of the year. Daniel Day-Lewis dominated Gangs of New York, Nicholas Cage brought a manic intensity to Adaptation, Jack Nicholson reminded us just why he is arguably the greatest actor of all time in About Schmidt and Michael Caine, in The Quiet American delivered a better performance than the one he won the Oscar for three years prior. And that was just the other nominees. Adam Sandler (yes, really), Sam Rockwell, Edward Norton and Tom Hanks all gave supreme performances that year that were as deserving of the award as Brody. There is of course the fact that The Pianist's director, Roman Polanski (who won the Best Director Oscar) was at the time on the run for sexually assaulting a minor. As the Academy prefers to shy away from all forms of controversy, no matter what the cost, it was surprise that The Pianist was recognised at all. Brody's win, whilst not the most controversial, was probably one of the most surprising. Even if you believe he should have won the prize, not even his mom would have suspected him to usurp the Oscar darlings Nicholson and Day-Lewis. The win isn't a travesty, it's just that there were better performances that year and everything about Roman Polanski comes draped in controversy. Brody did give a great speech though.