Film betting tips: Favourites to win Best Actor at the 2025 Oscars
The 97th Academy Awards are fast approaching, with Hollywood’s best and brightest set to celebrate the world of film on Sunday, March 2.
UK viewers will be able to watch the event starting from 10:30 pm, with ITV and ITVX named as the home of Oscars coverage for the second year running - as Jonathan Ross will be the host for the British television network.
Here, Film News Blitz takes you through all of the Best Actor nominees' chances, including some tasty picks for you to sink your teeth into.
Who is nominated for Best Actor at the 2025 Oscars?
The thespians up for Best Actor at the 2025 Oscars are: Adiren Brody (The Brutalist), Timothee Chalamet (A Complete Unknown), Ralph Fiennes (Conclave), Sebastian Stan (The Apprentice) and Colman Domingo (Sing Sing).
Brody is the bookies’ favourite to win Best Actor at the Oscars
Brody’s portrayal as architect Laszlo Toth in Director Brady Corbet’s period drama The Brutalist has already won a host of acting prizes this awards season and he’s the current bookies’ favourite to add Best Actor to his collection at the Oscars.
Brody has won at the Golden Globes, Critics Choice Awards, and the BAFTAs, which no doubt bolster his bid to snatch a second Academy Award in the Best Actor category.
BEST ODDS: 2/5 (Multiple bookies)
Chalamet is in with a shout thanks to A Complete Unknown
Chalamet’s leading performance in Director James Mangold’s Bob Dylan biopic A Complete Unknown has been widely and with good reason as the young star is completely transformed into his portrayal.
While Brody’s performance has had consistent momentum through awards season, putting him as the favourite, Chalamet came out as the top dog in the recent Screen Actors Guild Awards.
On the night, Chalamet said his SAG award was “fuel” to help propel him to be “one of the greats.”
The Academy’s youngest two-time Oscar nominee will be well on his way to stardom if he can perform an upset and snatch the coveted Best Actor prize from Brody’s fingertips.
BEST ODDS: 2/1 (Multiple bookies)
Ralph Fiennes, Conclave’s outsider
Rounding out the podium for the Best Actor odds is Fiennes for his leading role in the ensemble drama Conclave.
Fiennes anchors an extraordinary cast in Director Edward Berger’s papal drama that includes the likes of Stanley Tucci, Jon Lithgow and Isabella Rossellini, whom as an ensemble collective won an acting prize at this year’s Critics Choice Awards.
However, Fiennes is reportedly not keen on canvassing himself politically to Academy voters so his generational talent will likely go unrecognised at this year’s Oscars.
BEST ODDS: 25/1 (Paddy Power)
The outsiders
That leaves Stan and Domingo as the firm outsiders with the bookies for this year’s race to win Best Actor at the Oscars.
Stan already has a Golden Globe for his uncanny turn as Donald Trump, much to the displeasure of the US President in office, but his awards run is unlikely to go no further at the Oscars.
BEST ODDS: 40/1 (Multiple bookies)
The same can be said for Domingo and his role as John Divine G Whitfield as an incarcerated individual seeking to find purpose through the theatrical arts in Sing Sing.
Sing Sing is beautiful in its collaborative method of production, whereby everyone involved received equal pay and ownership stakes in the film.
Moreover, most of the actors in Sing Sing are formerly incarcerated men and are alumni of the Rehabilitation Through the Arts programme at New York’s Sing Sing prison, which gives the film its name.
Domingo has been recognised by the likes of the Satellite and Gotham Awards, but an Oscars prize seems unlikely, however well deserved.
BEST ODDS: 80/1 (Multiple bookies)
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