Oscars 2014: Predicting The Winners

Best Supporting Actor

Will Win: Jared Leto Should Win: Barkhad Abdi Surprise Win: Michael Fassbender Much like Matthew McConaughey, Jared Leto is a part of Dallas Buyer's Club, one of the big five movies that has a chance of dominating this ceremony (alongside 12 Years A Slave, Gravity, American Hustle and The Wolf of Wall Street). Jared Leto is a surprisingly underrated actor, and if McConaughey's guaranteed win is factored in, Leto will swipe Best Supporting Actor for a perfectly good performance. It's got all the hallmarks of a winner- Leto is colourful, went to dramatic extremes to transform into character, an there's a nice pinch of melodrama to the film and its performances. Which means Barkhad Abdi will almost certainly lose out. Originally talked up as the guaranteed winner, Abdi has come out of nowhere and provided Tom Hanks' eponymous protagonist with a raw and engaging nemesis in one of the awards season's strongest films. It's a real shame, because Abdi shows a huge amount of potential and displays just as much talent in his turn as a morally-divided hijacker. Ah well, maybe in a few years he'll get another chance. Abdi is someone that's likely to be sticking around now... Then again, could this be Michael Fassbender's year? He missed out with Shame, another McQueen collaboration, and he can officially be considered an A-Lister now if he wasn't already. He's always mentioned as a potential winner here and not just as an also-ran. His portrayal of Edwin Epps is both terrifying and fully-dimensional. His turn as the vicious slaveowner is a stunnin piece of character work and may just get caught up in 12 Years' awards sweep along with Ejiofor, N'yongo and McQueen.