3. John Hawkes - Best Actor (The Sessions)
While some writers and commenters (including myself) spent hours and many thousands of words dedicated to the lost Oscar cause that was Matthew McConaughey ahead of these nominations, in the hope that the Academy could look past the reputation and see the performances, noone would have suspected that they would instead completely snub a firm favourite for the final list of nominees. Instead of McConaughey, the surprising vote went to Bradley Cooper, who has made the Hangover movies and The A-Team (as well as probably the worst film ever in the shape of All About Steve), and the Academy decided in all of their wisdom to leave out John Hawkes. He may have made a career of understated and under-appreciated roles (aside from his Oscar nod for Winter's Bone) but his performance in The Sessions was exceptional and wholly deserving of a nomination here. To become paralysed writer Mark O'Brien, Hawkes had to transform himself, physically altering his body, as well as changing his mind and his voice to suit the character, as well as enduring intense physical duress during shooting to give the character added authenticity. That is method acting, and there was nothing superfluous or overstated about his performance at all. This snub was nothing short of outrageous.