6. Steve Carell - Foxcatcher
(above image shows Channing Tatum and Mark Ruffalo filming scenes for Foxcatcher in lieu of any shots of Steve Carell yet being released) If you were asked to name a few actors who would potentially be up for awards recognition at the end of the year, without knowing anything about the year's upcoming movies, my guess is that Steve Carell would not be one the first names that would come to your mind. This is not meant as a criticism of Mr. Carell's work, but as everyone is well aware of, the Academy isn't particularly kind to comedians. Even when comedians are playing more serious roles, in appropriately dramatic films, more times than not they end up getting the short shrift. It may come as a surprise then to see Carell at this high of a spot on a speculative Best Actor nominees list. After all, his work in previous efforts such as Get Smart and The Incredible Burt Wonderstone don't exactly scream Oscar. Foxcatcher though, chronicling the bizarre murder of former Olympic wrestler David Schultz (Mark Ruffalo) at the hands of the paranoid schizophrenic billionaire John du Pont, is not your typical Steve Carell material. Carell is tasked with playing the eccentric inheritor of the du Pont fortune and to guide him along this tricky process is director Bennett Miller. Thus far in the director's young career, Miller has had much success with the Academy. His two feature films have both managed to receive Best Picture nominations, while his two leading actors also managed companion nominations for Best Actor (although with all due respect to Mr Carell, his name doesn't carry the same level of gravitas as Philip Seymour Hoffman and Brad Pitt). This pretty much guarantees Foxcatcher will be an awards contender, so the question then comes down to how good will Carell's performance be? He's shown a lot of potential in the past with semi-serious roles such as in Little Miss Sunshine, but until the film gets some solid feedback, we just don't know what we are going to get.