10. Mark Ruffalo - Foxcatcher
You likely know Mark Ruffalo best as The Hulk's alter ego, Dr. Bruce Banner, in last summer's mammoth summer blockbuster, The Avengers. Mr. Ruffalo though has been doing good supporting work for sometime. He has one Oscar nomination to his name for his role as the biological father of two kids raised by lesbian parents in The Kids Are All Right, which was indeed a fine performance, but he has also done superb work in films such as Shutter Island, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, and my personal favorite of Ruffalo's performances, Zodiac. This type of consistently fine character work usually doesn't go unnoticed forever, and I suspect 2014 may be the year Mark Ruffalo finally gets some appropriate Oscar approval. The role that I believe may finally add the adjective "Oscar-winner" to his name in every subsequent movie he appears in is that of former Olympic wrestler David Schultz in Bennett Miller's Foxcatcher. The film tells the story of the affluent inheritor of the du Pont fortune, John du Pont, who was a tad touched in the head, to say the least. Du Pont was apparently quite the wrestling fan which, given his nearly endless disposal of monetary funds, led him to set up his own wrestling training facility on his compound. Du Pont employed David Schultz, along with his bother Mark (Channing Tatum), to train him in the art of wrestling. While they all got along as friends at first, du Pont's mental illness eventually got the better of him, and (minor spoiler alert for the uniformed) du Pont was charged with the murder of David Schultz, becoming one of the wealthiest Americans ever to be charged with murder. Needless to say, it's an appropriately dramatic role that the Academy is sure to appreciate. Director Bennett Miller has had a good track record with the Academy thus far in his very young career, which also spells good news for Mr. Ruffalo. Finally, just looking at the physical transformation in the picture above, you have to like Ruffalo's chances to, at the very least, receive a nomination, and maybe even win the whole thing. Above all others, I feel most confident of Ruffalo's chances, at least at this point.