AFT Awards: Best Actor in a Leading Role

This is the first category of the 6th 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 95 films. Click here to see previous years of this category.

Honorable mentions:
Jorge Drexler (All In), Andrew Garfield (The Amazing Spider-Man), Jack Black (Bernie), Ryan O'Nan (The Brooklyn Brothers Beat the Best), Michael Weston (The Brooklyn Brothers Beat the Best), Scott Speedman (Citizen Gangster), Adrien Brody (Detachment), Julian Villagran (Extraterrestrial), Jason Segel (The Five-Year Engagement), Lior Ashkenazi (Footnote), Shlomo Bar-Aba (Footnote), Chris Messina (The Giant Mechanical Man), Jason Biggs (Grassroots), Aksel Hennie (Headhunters), Bill Murray (Hyde Park on Hudson), Chris Pine (People Like Us), Ewan McGregor (Perfect Sense), Tom Courtenay (Quartet), Paul Dano (Ruby Sparks), Bradley Cooper (Silver Linings Playbook), Daniel Craig (Skyfall), Daniel Auteil (The Well-Digger’s Daughter), Michel Piccoli (We Have a Pope)

Runners-up:
Mark Duplass (Your Sister’s Sister)
Joaquin Phoenix (The Master)
Daniel Day-Lewis (Lincoln)
Tom Courtenay (Quartet)
Chris Messina (The Giant Mechanical Man)

The winner:
John Hawkes (The Sessions) was so incredibly natural and charming as paraplegic poet Mark O’Brien that it was easy to root for him as he tackled one of the greatest obstacles in his life.

Other nominees:
Richard Gere (Arbitrage) handed in a career-best dramatic turn as a businessman whose life was spinning out of control, marvelously focused on staying alert and ahead of the game. Jean-Louis Trignitant (Amour) received far less praise than his female costar, but it’s his nuanced, heartfelt, sober performance that truly makes the film. Denzel Washington (Flight) was so cool and in command as an alcoholic pilot that it made watching him fall apart all the more absolutely mesmerizing. Jared Gilman (Moonrise Kingdom) gave Wes Anderson’s delightful comedy a human appeal, making his prepubescent character a marvelously mature and compelling protagonist.