-George Clooney – Michael Clayton - Daniel Day Lewis – There Will Be Blood - James McAvoy - Atonement - Viggo Mortensen – Eastern Promises - Denzel Washington – American Gangster

George Clooney
After the hideous Batman and Robin Clooney’s career could have stopped doead in it’s tracks or he could have been left with the pretty boy rom-com’s that required nothing more from him than just turning up and being gorgeous.But Clooney had other ideas and, like many actors recently, he’s gone down the director’s route, a strategy that has worked very well for him.He returned in 2007 with Michael Clayton, only as an actor, as a burnt out lawyer and professional ‘fixer’ who gets caught up in events that surround a corporate cover up.This nomination follows his Oscar success in 2006 when he was nominated for Best Director and Original Screenplay for Good Night and Good Luck and Best supporting Actor for Syrianna. He went on to win for his role in Syrianna.

Clooney has already won Best Actor at the San Fransisco Film Critics Circle, Washington D.C. Area Film Critics Association and the National Board of review for his role in Michael Clayton.

Next year we will se him direct and star in Leatherheads.

Daniel Day Lewis

No matter what this actor stars in he dominates the screen and steal every scene and is the first of the British actors nominated in this category.

After his Oscar nominated performance in Gangs of New York he swore that it would be his last film role.

However 2007/8 sees him return as Daniel Plainview in Paul Thomas Anderson’s There Will Be Blood.

Over a twenty none year period There Will Be Blood follows Plainview as he rises from a being a lowly rock scratcher to a successful oil baron.

He has already won Best actor at the L.A Film Critics Association and the New York Film Critics Circle earlier this year and is perhaps Clooney’s biggest rivl when it comes to the Globes ceremony and the Oscars.

James McAvoy

James McAvoy is the second, and the youngest, of the British actors t be nominated in this category.

Despite British audiences being familiar with McAvoy and his talent for some time 2007 has been his breakthrough year in America. It began with his turn in The Last King of Scotland which landed him a BAFTA nomination for Best Supporting Actor and co-star Forest Whitaker bagging the Best Actor Oscar in February.

He followed this up with Joe Wright’s beautiful adaptation of Ian McEwan’s Atonement which has really grabbed the audience’s attention.

He plays Robbie Turner who is parted from his lover Cecilia after he is wrongfully accused of rape by her younger sister.

After spending time in prison he is drafted into the army to fight in the Second World War and finds himself on the beaches of Dunkirk.

He will next be seen in Wanted alongside Angelina Jolie and Morgan Freeman.

Viggo Mortensen

Mortensen is at lat beginning to shake off his Lord of the Rings tag forming an excellent partnership with director David Cronenberg.

In their second feature together Eastern Promises follows Nikolai, a ruthless and dangerous man who is linked to one of London’s most nortorious and organised crime families.

But his careful existence is disrupted by Anna, a midwife, who is searching for the family of a girl who died in childbirth.

Mortensen is famed for his deep research when preparing for his roles and for Eastern Promises he mingled with some of the Russian Mafia in London.

Eastern Promises won the Audience Prize at the Toronto International Film Festival earlier this year.

Denzel Washington

It’s great to see Washington back on form after a couple of years in the wilderness since winning his Oscar with a few questionable film choices.

But American Gangster is his best role since Training Day and it really is a powerhouse performance.

Based on a true story Washington plays 1970s Harlem hero Frank Lucas who masterminded a drugs empire that allowed him to flood New York with heroin from Vietnam.

Washington gives a great performance as the ruthless killer yet tender husband. He’s also re-united with his Virtuosity co-star Russell Crowe.

And, like Michael Mann’s Heat, the two Oscar winners and Hollywood heavyweights met just once at the end of the film.

He has also stepped behind the camera to direct and star in The Great Debaters.

Tip to win Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture Drama – George Clooney.

FemaleFirst Helen Earnshaw