With the fall festival season here, that means only one thing: the Oscars and awards race is starting to heat up. As we did last year, my podcast partner at Awards Central, Benji, and I are going to ramp up our thoughts on the podcast but also via articles on our awards predictions. From Critics Choice to Golden Globes to the Oscars, we will be covering predictions all season long. Today, we share our predictions of the Best Supporting Actor race post-Venice, Telluride, and TIFF. 

We have films from Paul Thomas Anderson, Guillermo del Toro, Chloe Zhao, Kathryn Bigelow, Josh Safdie, and Ryan Coogler set to ramp up the award season. Within those films, we have some star power that could feature many first-time nominees, but also some faces of the past ready to secure another nomination. 

2026 Oscar Best Supporting Actor Predictions

Ricky’s Best Supporting Actor Predictions

1. Sean Penn – One Battle After Another
2. Paul Mescal – Hamnet
3. Stellan Skarsgard – Sentimental Value
4. Jeremy Strong – Springsteen: Deliver Me From No Where
5. Adam Sandler – Jay Kelly

Benji’s Best Supporting Actor Predictions

1 – Stellan Skarsgård – Sentimental Value
2 – Sean Penn – One Battle After Another
3 – Paul Mescal – Hamnet
4 – Jeremy Strong – Deliver Me from Nowhere
5 – Adam Sandler – Jay Kelly

Other Prospects: Javier Bardem – F1: The Movie, Idris Elba – A House of Dynamite, Jacob Elordi – Frankenstein, Miles Caton – Sinners, Takehiro Hira – Rental Family