Continuing my personal 2025 Oscar nominations, today I will be writing about the race for Best Actor.

This year’s Best Actor race is one of the best in years, featuring five phenomenal actors doing some of their best work. I’ll be happy no matter which of these guys takes home the trophy: Timothee Chalamet (Marty Supreme), Leonardo DiCaprio (One Battle After Another), Ethan Hawke (Blue Moon), Michael B. Jordan (Sinners), and Wagner Moura (The Secret Agent).

If I had to make room, I’d drop Hawke (whom I adore, but would rather see recognized for a less Oscar-y role) and Chalamet (who is excellent, but is on a trajectory that will bring him back here many times in the future). Here are the gentlemen I’d have vying for the open slots:

Hugh Jackman (Song Sung Blue)
Jackman doesn’t get the credit he deserves for being a phenomenal song-and-dance man as well as one of our great dramatic actors (not to mention an action hero). He brings all of those skills to this charming film (well, maybe not the action part). It’s the most basic compliment you can pay an actor, but also maybe the highest: watching him, I fully believed he was this character, an alcoholic singer with a modest life, grand aspirations, and so much love in his failing heart.

Lee Byung-hun (No Other Choice)
This role is a tightrope of pathos, dark comedy, and a touch of menace. You need to sympathize with the character but not pity him. You don’t root for him, but you can’t be too turned off by his actions. He makes you laugh without being in on the joke, but without becoming the joke either. Lee doesn’t just walk that tightrope, he does gymnastics on it, anchoring nearly every scene of one of my favorite 2025 films.

Dylan O’Brien (Twinless)
I’ve seen O’Brien in a few things without knowing who he was, but he definitely has my attention after his marvelous work in this dramedy about a man who strikes up an unlikely friendship after his twin dies. O’Brien plays the lead character as well as his twin (in flashbacks) with completely different energy and mannerisms, and he excels at both the comedic and dramatic moments. After watching this month’s Send Help and countless interviews with him and co-star Rachel McAdams, I’m even more impressed by his range.

Joaquin Phoenix (Eddington)
Phoenix excels at playing off-kilter sad-sacks, and Sheriff Joe Cross is one of his best. Dealing with Covid restrictions, a popular mayor he hates, Black Lives Matter protests, and a wife who is succumbing to a cult, he is a powder keg perched atop the mountain of insanity that was America in 2020. Like some of the other actors on this list, Phoenix has to maintain the audience’s attention if not their sympathy as his situation drives him to darker and darker places.

Jesse Plemons (Bugonia)
Speaking of dark places, Plemons plays a conspiracy theorist who kidnaps and tortures a CEO with the goal of proving she’s an alien intent on destroying the human race. I knew Plemons was destined for great things when I saw him in Friday Night Lights 20 years ago, but he has exceeded my expectations. I loved his sweet Landry so much in that show, and never would have guessed he’d prove so adept at portraying bone-chilling evil (see Breaking Bad or Civil War). In this role, he dips his toe into those waters but also finds room for sorrow and sympathy.