Oscars 2022: Best Actor Award Will Be A Tough One To Predict This Year

The 2022 Academy Awards show is right around the corner, and everyone is wondering who'll bag which award. Although the award show recognizes the same people, some new names might pop up this year.

An excellent example of a repeat award guest is Meryl Streep. The "Devil Wears Prada" actress has received 21 Oscar nominations and bagged the award three times in her acting career. Denzel Washington is another example.

This year's Oscars has everyone in a chokehold because no one knows for sure how it'll go down. This includes the possible host of the show. However, the contenders for the Best Actor award are becoming apparent. Here are all the details for the potential nominees for the Best Actor Academy Award.

This year's 2022 Oscar award contenders are all massively loved by the public and highly talented. The competition is so close that experts in the industry exactly aren't sure who will be nominated or go home with an Academy Award. However, the award for best actor this year has seemingly narrowed down to some selected few.

Among them is Will Smith for his performance in "King Richard," Benedict Cumberbatch, who acted in "The Power of the Dog," and Andrew Garfield for his role in "Tick Tick Boom." These actors are the leading nominees in this section.

Smith snagged the Best Actor award in the Golden Globes for the drama category, while Garfield took home the Best Actor award for the comedy category. Both beat out Cumberbatch, but it's not over yet. The three actors are also competing for the Screen Actors Guild award.

On the other hand, Denzel Washington, who has two Oscar wins under his belt, might be gearing up to snatch the award with his performance in "The Tragedy of Macbeth." Besides the four actors mentioned, who else could be gearing up to join the Best Actor category for this year's Oscars?

Several actors had recent performances good enough for that fifth slot. Gold Derby, known for tracking and predicting award seasons, revealed Javier Bardem could be next in line. The actor impressed movie fans and critics with his performance in "Being the Ricardos." However, Nicole Kidman stole the show with her performance, so his nomination might not be set in stone.

Like several other lead actors, Bardem received a Golden Globe nomination for his performance. Leonardo DiCaprio is another actor who could give Bardem a run for his money. The actor's performance in "Don't Look Up" got a lot of attention. Besides "Don't Look Up," DiCaprio was nominated for a Golden Globe award in "Swan Song" as Mahershala Ali.

Other Possible contenders are Peter Dinklage for his role in "Cyrano," Anthony Amos for "In The Heights" and Cooper Hoffman for his performance in "Licorice Pizza." Besides these actors, someone entirely unsuspecting like Nicolas Cage for his performance in "Pig" could snag a spot.

While experts are doing their best to predict the possible nominees for this year's Oscar, nothing is known for sure. In 2017 there was a mix-up for the best picture award between "Moonlight" and "La La Land." If that incident is any indication, anything can happen at the Oscars.

While the Best Actor award has been narrowed down to some select few, there is still ample opportunity for change. The same goes with the other award fields. Only time can tell as the eventual nominees get announced on February 8, 2022.

Besides the anxious business of figuring out the nominees of the famous award show, fans could entertain themselves by watching how the rest of the award season plays out. This includes organizing the show and the next host.

One of the most shocking incidents in Oscars history is probably the mix-up between "La La Land" and "Moonlight" for the Best Picture award. It happened in 2017 when Faye Dunaway and Warren Beatty hosted the show.

The hosts accidentally read the wrong winner, and it took the Oscars two whole minutes to rectify the mistake. This was a big deal because the award was basically the top prize everyone wanted to see.

However, even if "Moonlight" got called first, the win would still surprise people. "La La Land" was a huge fan favorite at that time. The Oscar blooper favored Barry Jenkins because it caused such a shock that the slight wasn't as pronounced.