Andrew Garfield has earned raves for his performance as a pacifist WWII soldier in Mel Gibson’s “Hacksaw Ridge,” and he’s also toplining Martin Scorsese’s long-in-the-works historical drama “Silence.”
Amy Adams has drawn great acclaim for her role as a dissatisfied L.A. art dealer in Tom Ford’s “Nocturnal Animals” as well as for playing a linguist who communicates with an alien race in Denis Villeneuve’s “Arrival.”
Jake Gyllenhaal memorably tackles two roles, both riveting, in Tom Ford’s “Nocturnal Animals.” But will voters remember his heartbreaking turn as a grieving husband in last April’s Jean-Marc Vallée drama “Demolition”?
Mahershala Ali picked up a Spirit Award nomination for his turn as a three-dimensional drug dealer in “Midnight,” but he also stands out as a military vet who woos Taraji P. Henson’s single-mom mathematician in “Hidden Figures.”
Elle Fanning , at just 18, has kept busy in multiple films this year but she’s earning awards buzz for her supporting turns in both Ben Affleck’s Prohibition-era thriller “Live by Night” and Mike Mills’ ’70s-set “20th Century Women.”
Chilean director Pablo Larraín has two biopics that are garnering awards attention, “Neruda” starring Gael García Bernal as the famed poet-politician and “Jackie” starring Natalie Portman as Mrs. John F. Kennedy Jr.
