13 Unexpected Actors Who Might Win Oscars Next Year

9. Thomas Mann - Me & Earl & The Dying Girl

The Actor: Young on-the-rise actor Thomas Mann first made his name known to audiences with his leading role in Project X, though has thankfully graduated onto greener pastures with a slew of upcoming art-house flicks that have played the festival circuit recently, such as Welcome to Me and The Stanford Prison Experiment. The Role: Mann plays Greg Gaines, a socially awkward high schooler who is forced by his mother (Connie Britton) to befriend a leukemia-addled girl, Rachel (Olivia Cooke). Eventually, though, a bond grows, and each learns plenty from the other. Why They Might Win: Because The Fault in Our Stars proved last year that weepie illness movies can court awards success (its campaign for Shailene Woodley and Laura Dern got surprising traction), and the massive acclaim this movie enjoyed at Sundance last month simply cannot be ignored. Mann was singled out for his exceptional lead performance, and though it's a long road to the Oscars, Whiplash proved just this past week how a fine turn can sustain all the way to the finish line.