To everyone’s surprise, Bohemian Rhapsody picked up awards for both its Golden Globes nominations two weeks ago. Bradley Cooper was expected to win Best Drama Actor for A Star Is Born, but Malek stunned with his Freddie Mercury win.Meanwhile, the biggest shock of the night was Bohemian Rhapsody taking Best Drama Picture. Such support for the Queen movie has seen its odds shorten for the Oscars, however, it looks like there’s another big contender for in the acting category.
Last night at the Critics’ Choice Awards Bale picked up not just Best Comedy Actor, as he did at the Golden Globes, but Best Actor too.
The latter was a bit of a surprise and now makes the Best Actor BAFTA, SAG award and Oscar look like more of a two horse race.
Of course, Malek has the advantage of having won the Best Drama Actor Golden Globe, as every winner of that award since 2013 has gone on to win the Best Actor Oscar.
However, 2012 may be the nearest comparison to this year, with George Clooney winning that Golden Globe for The Descendants, while Jean Dujardin picked up the award Bale won this year in Best Musical/Comedy Actor.
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Clooney also picked up the Critics’ Choice award, but Dujardin went on to win the Oscar.
Of course, both Malek and Bale have an advantage in their categories in having played historical figures: Freddie Mercury and Dick Cheney.
The Academy has a trend of favouring actors who play real people, with Gary Oldman winning for Winston Churchill last year.
Other examples are Helen Mirren’s The Queen, Colin Firth’s King George VII, Daniel Day-Lewis’ Lincoln and Meryl Streep’s Margaret Thatcher.
There seems to be a split this year between favouring the audience-pleasing Bohemian Rhapsody – which didn’t impress the critics – and the likeable inspiring persona that is Mercury, over Bale’s reviewer friendly politically-driven Vice.
However, our money’s on Malek taking the Oscar as Mercury has a hero narrative behind him as Queen singer and a gay icon.
While Cheney’s depiction is that of a villain. After all, Bale controversially thanked Satan for inspiration in playing the former US Vice President in Vice.
Nominations for the Oscars will be announced on Tuesday, January 22.