6. Christoph Waltz
Christoph Waltz was the revelatory presence behind Inglourious Basterds that made Col. Hans Landa such a vicious and terrifying villain, and here he's employed to different yet near-equally potent effect in the opposite role of the hero. Though the Academy are likely to recognise his role as a supporting one, given its size and how he speaks more lines than Jamie Foxx's Django, he really feels like the lead of the piece a lot of time, his Dr. King Schultz having a wealth more personality and chutzpah than the titular character, thanks to Waltz being handed all the best dialogue on a silver platter. Tarantino's no fool; he saw how brilliantly Waltz delivered all that villainous dialogue on Basterds, and knew he could handle the other side of the spectrum just as well; here his Schultz is a sarcastic, hilariously condescending bounty hunter who loves to put-down the bad guys and stick up for what's right. His motives are complicated and foggy at times - is he driven more by guilt than by a genuine need to help Django? - and Waltz plays it perfectly, creating a character who is a laugh riot and totally badass all at the same time.