Forest Whitaker, The Last King of Scotland
	Forest Whitaker, The Last King of Scotland

Surprises were certainly not the order of the day in regards to the Best Actor category, as an already-familiar group of gentleman were chosen to represent the best of the best in 2006 performances.

Riding high on critical acclaim, a recent Golden Globe win, and nominations and accolades from almost every major awards organization, Forest Whitaker appears to be the unquestionable man to beat in this year's Oscar race. Beside playing the serious, grandiose sort of historical role in The Last King of Scotland that the Academy adores, Whitaker's appearance this year in the also critically acclaimed American Gun could only help sweep away the rest of the competition, despite the fact that his Last King role seems like more of a supporting character to James McAvoy's young doctor.

Leonardo DiCaprio's another actor who has garnered serious buzz from critics, awards organizations and fans alike, which paid off with his nomination for Blood Diamond. While he had a lot of heavy lifting to do as part of a pared-down cast in Blood Diamond (not to mention trying to nail down a snazzy South African accent), we'd bet that if he wins, it will actually be one of those increasingly frequent nods to his cumulative work in Blood Diamond and the The Departed (not to mention his work in Important Films from previous years, including The Aviator and Gangs of New York). Does the Academy love his recent body of work more than Mr. Whitaker's singular performance in Last King? Only the Oscar voters know...

Hoping to overwhelm all competition with a crushing blitz of publicity and a heartwarming story of perseverance is Will Smith, whose The Pursuit of Happyness dropped at just the right time to woo Oscar voters who were looking for heroic, redemptive stories during the holiday season. A recent tribute evening at the Museum of the Moving Image gave plenty of Hollywood folks a chance to show their love for Smith, but how will this translate pencil-to-ballot? Hard to say, though Pursuit's impressive legs at the box office may work to increase his chances.

As we hoped, Ryan Gosling did turn out to be the newbie nominee of the category this year. With his exceptional turn in Half Nelson, he made critics stand up and take notice of his performance, which they praised loudly enough to hook audiences into checking out this otherwise little-known indie film. While definitely the dark horse of the category, we're just happy that Mr. Gosling's strong performance was singled out from amongst the Awards Season madness.

In contrast, Peter O'Toole, the seven time Oscar nominee, was able to combine his legendary status with his scene-stealing performance in quiet indie hit Venus to win a chance at a gold statuette. While yes, he was awarded an honorary Oscar in 2003, he's actually never won an acting award from the Academy, and the voters may feel that it's about time they hand over the loot. Again, his chances will depend on how much Oscar voters feel that they owe him and his overall career, when it comes down to the final moments before voting, but the film, and his performance in it, are so little-seen that his battle is certainly an uphill one, to say the least.

In a category that seemed decided so long ago, only two performances pop to mind as feeling anywhere near snubbed for their exclusion: Sacha Baron Cohen for Borat, and Clive Owen for Children of Men. Mr. Cohen's recent Golden Globe win apparently was not enough to bolster his fortunes with the Academy, who may have remained faithful to a strong history of ignoring socially conscious and comedic turns -- or perhaps not enough voters fully grasped that Mr. Borat Sagdiyev was a character, not an actual person. And, despite Children of Men's still-growing popularity (it just expanded to 1,110 screens), Clive Owen's heroic performance just didn't gain quite enough momentum in time to propel him into the top five.