I understand but the point of this exercise is to say forget about Academy politics. What was the correct placement for the performance? I envisioned this exercise as an opportunity to see what kinds of opportunities arise when there is less Academy politicking, but if you feel that Haley Joel Osment is a supporting actor in The Sixth Sense, go with your gut.Big Magilla wrote
Maybe Osment should have been considered in the lead category but aside from Brandon de Wilde in Shane, child actors were not nominated at all from the rise of Shirley Temple through the special Oscar to Hayley Mills in 1960. They were either given special juvenile awards or ignored altogether...
Personally, I thought Osment should have been nominated as Best Actor for the criminally underrated A.I.: Artificial Intelligence in 2001. I thought he was correctly positioned in support for The Sixth Sense as Bruce Willis was the nominal star.
I agree with you that Ralph Fiennes was an Academy favorite by that point, and certainly it's not hard to imagine a world where he was also nominated for Best Actor for Quiz Show. But I don't think he was in the running in 1999 for a couple of reasons. Aside from its strong showing at the BAFTAs, The End of the Affair had its strongest showing at the Golden Globes where it was nominated for Best Picture, Best Actress, Best Director, and Best Original Score. Even the HFPA didn't nominate him for Best Actor, instead giving his spot to Matt Damon. I know you're not saying that Fiennes has a better shot than Damon, but you'd think if there was one group that was going to give it to Fiennes it would be the organization that was the biggest fans of the film. I think Ralph Fiennes was a bit taken for granted for his work in (again) a role that on the surface seemed a bit similar to his English Patient performance. Beyond that, The End of the Affair really under-performed with the Academy across the board. This was such a handsome production and it only picked up mentions for Julianne Moore and its gorgeous cinematography, but nothing for its writing, music, production design, or costume design. I just don't think it was much on the Academy's radar.Big Magilla wrote
As for the others I mentioned, Carrey, whose film and performance I personally did not like, was nominated for Best Actor by SAG and won the Globe for Best Actor-Comedy; Fiennes was nominated for a BAFTA and Damon was nominated for Best Actor-Drama at the Globes. Penn's nomination was a surprise, but it didn't come out of nowhere. He was nominated for Best Actor-Comedy at the Globes. The other four nominees, Denzel Washington. Russell Crowe, winner Kevin Spacey, and New York Film Critics winner Richard Farnsworth had all been nominated for Globes, and all but Farnsworth had been nominated by SAG. So, yes, if Penn hadn't been nominated, then Damon, Fiennes, or Carrey would have been the most likely to fill the fifth spot.
Ralph Fiennes, who has five SAG nominations for his film work and six BAFTA nominations for the same, is the most criminally underrated living actor as far as Oscar is concerned. He has only two Oscar nominations to his credit for Schindler's List and The English Patient. He should have also been nominated for Quiz Show, The End of the Affair, The Constant Gardener, and maybe even A Bigger Splash, in which case he'd be the Amy Adams of male actors as far as Oscar is concerned.
I think you're right that the last spot was probably between Jim Carrey and Matt Damon but if we had to pick a third I can think of a few other options. Maybe Philip Seymour Hoffman for Flawless. He had a fantastic year in 1999 and his performance in Joel Schumacher's weird bomb of a buddy comedy did get him a SAG nomination. Maybe Terrence Stamp for his comeback role in The Limey, maybe Jim Broadbent who was a critics fave for Topsy-Turvy, an actor who was getting closer to a nomination in a film that did a bit better than some might have guessed early on, or Jeff Bridges for The Door in the Floor, a largely forgotten film but a performance that many were expecting in the summer and an actor who shows up all the time. But if I had to guess who might have been third rung in retrospect (in an Osment-less field), maybe we're overthinking this. What movie did much better than people thought across the board and had a strong campaign behind it? Maybe third rung was Tobey Maguire for The Cider House Rules? Sure, he didn't really show up anywhere but nominating voters were clearly fans of it across the board, and he was a young, exciting up-and-comer by 1999. Who knows? Maybe Sean Penn beat him by a few votes.
He's wonderful in Hail, Caesar! but I'll be honest I'm quite a fan of him in the James Bond films, especially Skyfall where he offers the right balance of integrity and snooty.danfrank wrote
I agree about Fiennes. As fine a dramatic actor as he is, he’s perhaps even more talented as a comedic actor. I’ve watched the clip from Hail, Caesar!, where he’s attempting to direct Alden Ehrenreich’s character, probably a dozen times. Fiennes is playing the straight man but is the one who is just incredibly funny in that scene. I think he’s underrated not just by the Oscars but by filmmakers who overlook or underutilize him, and thus his talents get wasted on James Bond films and the like.
I think the performance we're all forgetting is his fantastically funny work in The Grand Budapest Hotel. I'm well known on this board for my Wes Anderson fandom. The one area where I think he's a bit lacking these days is in his character-writing. Not the case with Ralph Fiennes and The Grand Budapest Hotel. He's so funny and spontaneous. I would've preferred him to any of the nominees.