AFT Awards: Best Actor in a Leading Role

This is the first category of the 4th Annual AFT Film Awards to be announced. The AFT Awards are my own personal choices for the best in film of each year and the best in television of each season. The AFT Film Awards include the traditional Oscar categories and a number of additional specific honors. Nominees are pictured in the order I’ve ranked them and drawn from a pool of approximately 177 films. Click here to see previous years of this category.

Honorable mentions (in alphabetical order):
Casey Affleck (The Killer Inside Me), Riz Ahmed (Four Lions), Dany Boon (Micmacs), Michael Caine (The American), Michael Cera (Scott Pilgrim vs. the World), Michael Cera (Youth in Revolt), George Clooney (The American), Paddy Considine (Red Riding: 1980), Brian Cox (The Good Heart), Tom Cruise (Knight and Day), Shane Curry (Kisses), Ricardo Darin (The Secret in their Eyes), Stephen Dorff (Somewhere), Robert Downey, Jr. (Iron Man 2), David Duchovny (The Joneses) Steve Evets (Looking for Eric), Colin Farell (Ondine), James Frecheville (Animal Kingdom), Andrew Garfield (Red Riding: 1974), Keir Gilchrist (It’s Kind of a Funny Story), Ryan Gosling (Blue Valentine), Jake Gyllenhaal (Love and Other Drugs), Robert Hill (Down Terrace), Robin Hill (Down Terrace), Shair Kabaha (Ajami)Louis-Do de Lencquesaing (The Father of My Children), Michael Nyqvist (The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo), Tahar Rahim (A Prophet), John C. Reilly (Cyrus), Dax Shepard (The Freebie), Jamey Sheridan (Handsome Harry), Kevin Spacey (Casino Jack), Ben Stiller (Greenberg), Mark Wahlberg (The Fighter)

Runners-up:
COLIN FIRTH (The King’s Speech)
AARON ECKHART (Rabbit Hole)
CIARIN HINDS (The Eclipse)
DOMINIC CHIANESE (The Last New Yorker)
ROMAIN DURIS (Heartbreaker)

The winner:
Edward Norton (Leaves of Grass) played identical twins so different from one another that it was hard to see a resemblance, energetically embodying a Southern drug dealer and his more subdued, philosophical professor brother.

Other nominees:
Jesse Eisenberg (The Social Network) dominated a film full of strong actors with his distinct, committed, and complex portrait of Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg. James Franco (127 Hours) carried an entire film with his youthful energy and free spirit in the midst of an impossible situation. Javier Bardem (Biutiful) compellingly portrayed a good man trying to reconcile the state of his life and the terrible nature of his actions. Lambert Wilson (Of Gods and Men) was remarkably subtle in his realization of a forward-thinking monk determined not to let himself or his community be influenced by violence.