3) Benicio del Toro in Sicario
**This entry contains spoilers**
Even better than Emily Blunt, Sicario‘s lead, is the supporting character that – by the end – reveals himself to have been the subject of the film’s title all along. That would be Benicio del Toro, as the secret hitman of the piece, Alejandro. Working alongside the FBI and CIA with his own shady agenda, del Toro is a mystery to Blunt’s Kate and to the audience from beginning to almost-end.
But even before the big reveal of Alejandro’s horrifying past, you know this is a man eaten up inside, and hollowed out by his own frightening demons. Del Toro conveys it without the need for dialogue. It’s in his heavy shoulders and sullen, blackened eyes, his sad, ruthless whisper of a voice. Benicio del Toro’s been doing this for almost 30 years, and even after an Oscar and a Cannes Best Actor award he’s arguably never been this good.
2) Cate Blanchett in Carol
Could Cate Blanchett win her third Oscar this year for Carol? She has stiff competition from Saoirse Ronan for Brooklyn and Brie Larson for Room, and her Carol co-star Rooney Mara has been picking up awards notice, too. But it could be that Blanchett has once again – after ruling the roost in Blue Jasmine in 2013 – been the woman to come out on top in the film year.
Blanchett plays the title character in Todd Haynes’ latest period piece like a woman aware that she’s right in her convictions but simply living in the wrong time. For much of Carol she’s enigmatic, holding back on her true self if only because she knows her feelings towards the same sex aren’t welcomed in 1950s America. The clip they’ll use to clinch Blanchett that third Oscar will be the one in which Carol defiantly refuses to deal with her controlling husband any longer, where Blanchett has never been more controlled nor more powerful at once.