AFT Awards: Best Actor in a Leading Role

This is the first category of the 9th 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 122 films. Click here to see previous years of this category.

Honorable mentions:
Abraham Attah (Beasts of No Nation), Adam Scott (The Overnight), Alex Jennings (The Lady in the Van), Asa Butterfield (Ten Thousand Saints), Bryan Cranston (Trumbo), Chiwetel Ejiofor (Z for Zachariah), Christopher Abbott (James White), Domnhall Gleeson (Ex Machina), Geza Rohrig (Son of Saul), Jack O'Connell ('71), Jason Segel (The End of the Tour), Jason Sudeikis (Sleeping with Other People), Joseph Gordon-Levitt (The Walk), Kodi Smit-McPhee (Slow West), Lembit Ulfsak (Tangerines), Leonardo DiCaprio (The Revenant), Märt Avandi (The Fencer), Martin Dubreil (Felix and Meira), Michael B. Jordan (Creed), Michael Keaton (Spotlight), Rafael Spregelburd (The Film Critic), Ryan Reynolds (Woman in Gold), Simon Abkarian (Gett: The Trial of Vivianne Amsalem), Thomas Mann (Me and Earl and the Dying Girl), Will Smith (Concussion)

Runners-up:
Jemaine Clement (People, Places, Things)
Michael Fassbender (Steve Jobs)
Andrew Garfield (99 Homes)
Ryan Reynolds (Mississippi Grind)
Eddie Redmayne (The Danish Girl)

The winner:
Jacob Tremblay (Room), at just nine years old, offered a fascinating perspective on the world through Jack’s eyes, so filled with wonder and an intense, naive maturity.

Other nominees:
Johnny Depp (Black Mass) disappeared physically and emotionally into the body of a mobster with his most memorable performance in a long time. Michael Shannon (99 Homes) eviscerated those around him with Rick’s cutthroat drive to succeed and crush all who weren’t willing to meet him at the same level. Ben Mendelsohn (Mississippi Grind) offered a complex, endearing portrait of a gambler who can’t possibly hope to stop himself when the time is right. Matt Damon (The Martian) dominated an entire planet with his sense of humor and film-carrying energy.