Two veteran actors who have never been nominated for an Oscar before have become early favorites to take home the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor in 2027. We’re not yet halfway through 2026, but that hasn’t stopped people from trying to predict next year’s Oscar winners and nominations based on early award buzz. Many of the predicted nominees in the category are in movies that haven’t come out yet, like The Odyssey, Dune: Part Three, Digger, and The Social Reckoning, so there’s plenty of time for new names to emerge. The 99th Academy Awards is scheduled to air next year on March 14, 2027, on ABC and Hulu.
John Goodman and Steve Buscemi are early favorites to win an Oscar in 2027
Both John Goodman and Steve Buscemi are among the leaders to earn a nomination (and potentially win) the Best Supporting Oscar at the 2027 Oscars, according to a bet on Kalshi, as of June 2. The full results show that there are already numerous actors who are vying for a spot on the list despite it being incredibly early in the race. In fact, there are many more names here since early Oscar predictions in late April.
John Goodman (Digger) – 56%
Jeremy Strong (The Social Reckoning) – 48%
Steve Buscemi (Wild Horse Nine) – 44%
Paul Giamatti (The Statement) – 41%
Sam Rockwell (Good Luck, Have Fun, Don’t Die) – 37% [also for Wild Horse Nine]
Robert Pattinson (Dune: Part Three) – 27%
Tom Holland (The Odyssey) – 27%
Jesse Plemons (Digger) – 25%
Colman Domingo (Michael) – 24%
Miles Telles (Piper Tiger) – 20%
Riz Ahmed (Hamlet) – 19% [also for Digger]
Channing Tatum (Saturn Return) – 16%
Michael Fassbender (Hope) – 15%
Jacques Berman Webster II, aka Travis Scott (The Odyssey) – 8%
Adam Scott (The Whisper Man) – 6%
Robert DeNiro (The Whisper Man) – 6%
Daniel Craig (Narnia: The Magician’s Nephew) – 3%
Given that these are still early Oscar odds, it’s important to take these with a grain of salt since these predictions can swing widely as we head toward the end of 2026.
In the satirical black comedy Digger, directed by two-time Oscar winner Alejandro G. Iñárritu, Goodman plays the president of the United States. The Warner Bros. Pictures film stars Tom Cruise, Sandra Hüller, Jesse Plemons, and Riz Ahmed, all of whom are in the conversation to win Oscars for their respective performances in the movie. As for Buscemi, he plays CIA bureau chief “MJ” in the British film Wild Horse Nine, directed and written by Martin McDonagh. Two of its cast members, John Malkovich and Sam Rockwell, could receive acting Oscar nominations in the movie too.
Early 2027 Oscar predictions from Variety picked Goodman as their frontrunner to win the category as well, though it didn’t mention Buscemi. It also gave a nod to multiple actors who are not in the prediction market at all, such as D’Pharoah Woon-A-Tai in A Long Winter, Mark Ruffalo in Being Heumann, Guy Pearce in Ink, Antonio Banderas in Tony, Paul Dano in The Chaperones, and more. Other actors who are in the hunt include Charles Melton in Saturn Return, Tom Courtenay in Queen at the Sea, and August Diehl in Fatherland.
It’s a surprise that Goodman and Buscemi have never been nominated for an Academy Award despite them having started their acting careers in film and television in the 1980s. Most of Goodman’s accolades have come for his work on television in Roseanne, though he was nominated for a Golden Globe for Best Supporting Actor in Barton Fink. He’s also received various nominations and awards for his performances in The Big Lebowski, 10 Cloverfield Lane, and The Artist. Meanwhile, Buscemi has won major awards for his work in HBO’s Boardwalk Empire and earned various accolades for his theatrical performances in Ghost World, Fargo, The Death of Stalin, and Reservoir Dogs.
