Best Supporting Actor 2016: Lucas Hedges - Manchester by the Sea

Manchester by the Sea is a very solid Oscar-baity film, that works mostly because of strong performances involved. Lucas Hedges plays a young cousin of Casey Affleck‘s character, who lost his father.
Hedges very believably portrays the grief after such loss. He doesn‘t overact it anyhow and at the right moment he keeps revealing small parts of the grief. Actually, the best thing about this performance is the fact how ordinary his character is. It is just a normal boy, who has got his own problems at school, or with girls. The scenes, in which he is trying to deal with the problems with girls in fact bring some needed humour to the film.
Very important thing about the performance is the chemistry between him and a leading actor Casey Affleck. These two have great chemistry and I suppose it might have been difficult to have a good chemistry with Affleck.
Even though this performance is great at his own, there are a few moments that mirror the inexperience in Hedges portrayal and sometimes you feel a slight uncertainty from his presence.
On the other hand I must say this performance has grown on me after a rewatch.
His best scene would be his emotional outburst in the middle of the night because of the freezer.
The chances of winning an Oscar: I guess he was the fourth slightly in front of Shannon, but both are of those ‘happy-to-be-nominated‘ cases.

Best Supporting Actor 2016: Jeff Bridges - Hell or High Water

Hell or High Water is a great, yet quite forgettable film about a relationship between two brothers – robbers and a sheriff, who does everything to catch them. Bridges plays the sheriff. Because of the story envolving around these three character, one might argue that the role is in fact leading. It‘s actually on the line between leading and supporting and I personally don‘t mind putting him into supporting cateogory, as the film mostly centers around Chris Pine‘s character.
Bridges, as usual, has got a great screen presence throughout the film. His characterization of an old sarcastic sassy sheriff is great and very enjoyable to watch. Bridges uses accent in the role and a strange hummy way of speaking. I was distracted by it at first, yet after a short time I got used to it and I was able to fully appreciate the performance.
Bridges is very fine and enjoyable throughout the film, but the real showcase for him comes later in the film (SPOILER ALERT) when his partner is killed by Ben Foster's character. The urge to revenge for such act is wonderfully portrayed by Bridges. We completely understand him and sympathize with him. On the other hand he is able to bring some amount of shabbiness to the role. We sympathize with him, though we see a desperate man, though we realize that his actions are motivated by the revenge, despair and amok. (END OF SPOILER)
The best scene of his performance is the most subtle one at the very end of the film, when he talks to Chris Pine's character and it is their first confrontation. They talk after all of the things had already happened. Bridges (but Pine as well) brings a lot of tension to the scene.
The chances of winning an Oscar: Though the performance itself doesn‘t belong to the most memeorable ones, Bridges is a respectable persona, so I think he was the second, or the third, fighting for the second spot with Patel.

Best Supporting Actor 2016: Michael Shannon - Nocturnal Animals

Nocturnal Animals is a very divisive film, but I really loved it – the atmosphere, directing and editing of it are all perfect and they create one very enjoyable film experience. Though the line with Amy Adams is less interesting, the subplot involving Aaron Taylor-Johnson is very entertaining. Michael Shannon is a part of this subplot, luckily.
Unlike his performance in 99 Homes, he uses his on-screen charisma that this time actually works. The fact that he wasn‘t nominated for that is considered a snub and I think the mementum after the snub helped him to gain this nomination, so it was for the best. This is a better role and a better performance given by Shannon.
From the first moment we see Bobby Andes, he gets our attention and we can‘t take our eyes of him. It‘s the way he stands, or speaks, even the way he smokes his cigarette – so much charismatic Shannon is. Andes seems like a flegmatic cop, but once he comes to confronte a suspect, he won‘t give him anything for granted. Shannon portrays this ambousness with ease and even though we don‘t understand it at first, as the film goes on we are able to discover more and more layers underneath this character. So the character is full of twists and surprises, which could be an acting mess. Not in Shannon‘s hands.
A great example of this is a scene in a restaurant, where Bobby confesses to Gyllenhaal‘s character Tony that his health is not very good and that he might die soon – the paradox of the fact is that he really wants to punish the murderers.
One might wonder, why would he want to do it, without having any evidance about them doing it, except from Tony‘s word (that‘s especially the case of Aaron Taylor-Johnson‘s character). Shannon solves this problem rather greatly. In his portrayal of the cop he creates something twisted about him and so we assume that he would be able to do it just for the pure joy of trying to suffocate somebody. It‘s his entire on-screen persona that created this and by that he was able to cover up for the holes in the script.
The best scene of Shannon‘s performance would be one of his latter scenes in the cabin, in which he really violently questions the suspects – he is a delight to watch. In fact he brings to the role some enjoyable effect that reminded me of Christoph Waltz‘s Oscar-winning performance in Inglourious Basterds.
The chances of winning an Oscar: Happy to be nominated.