In this weeks episode of the Music City Drive-In podcast we talked about the Lead categories for the upcoming Oscars. Who we thought was going to win and who could play potential spoiler, and you can listen to that below.
I wanted to have a little fun with both categories and I will do this to correlate for all of our shows, but I wanted to rank them for my preference, give my winner, and potential spoiler as well.
Best Actor
My Ranking
1. Anthony Hopkins – “The Father”
2. Riz Ahmed – “Sound of Metal”
3. Chadwick Boseman – “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom”
4. Steven Yeun – “Minari”
5. Gary Oldman – “Mank”
Who Will Win: Anthony Hopkins – “The Father”

The first time I saw ‘The Father’ at AFI Fest, I was devastated. The entire film was something I had never seen before, and that started from Florian Zeller’s direction, but the backbone comes from Anthony Hopkins as Anthony. He had Hopkins in mind when he wrote the screenplay (adapted from his own play), and at 83-years-old he gave one of the best performances of his career. I know everyone has Chadwick Boseman winning, and I don’t hate it as he was great in Ma Rainey. But for me, after the Academy gave ‘The Father’ six Oscar nominations regardless of how bad Sony Picture Classics pushed the film, I felt that put Hopkins back into the conversation. This win may come with backlash, but PLEASE WATCH THE FILM.
Who Might Play Spoiler: Riz Ahmed – “Sound of Metal”
Chadwick is more than likely to win this, so I didn’t put him in ‘spoiler’ because of that. Riz Ahmed is more than a formable contender for his performance in ‘Sound of Metal.’ As you see above, it was my second favorite amongst the nominees. Could he win? I don’t know, but I do love the idea of Riz winning.