With “The Tragedy of Macbeth” having finally screened last night at NYFF, Denzel Washington officially entered the 2022 Oscar race.

I’ve already tackled the Best Picture and Best Actress categories, but the Actor category is one that’ll be utterly fascinating to follow in the coming months. As it stands, we have three STRONG contenders and a fourth and fifth slot open for the taking.

First things first: this does look like Will Smith’s Oscar to lose. He received the best reviews of his career at Telluride for “King Richard,” the narrative is irresistible, he is well-respected and he’s vaccinat … oh wait. That’s just a rumour for now, and I’m sure the PR team behind his campaign will figure it out, but Smith has been at it now, post-Fresh Prince, for almost 25 years and he’s due.

Frontrunners

Will Smith (King Richard)
Benedict Cumberbatch (The Power of the Dog)
Denzel Washington (The Tragedy of Macbeth)
Joaquin Phoenix (C’mon Cmon)
Peter Dinklage (Cyrano)

Possibilities
Jude Hill (Belfast)
Simon Rex (Red Rocket)
Matt Damon (Stillwater)
Oscar Isaac (The Card Counter)
Jake Gyllenhaal (The Guilty)
Andrew Garfield (The Eyes of Tammy Faye)

Long Shots

Timothee Chalamet (Dune)
Adam Driver (Annette)
Michael Keaton (Worth)
Filippo Scotti (The Hand of God)
Nicolas Cage (Pig)
Clifton Collins, Jr. (Jockey)

Still Not Screened

Javier Bardem (Being the Ricardos)
Bradley Cooper (Nightmare Alley)
Daniel Craig (No Time to Die)
Leonardo DiCaprio (Don’t Look Up)
Adam Driver (House of Gucci)
Andrew Garfield (Tick, Tick… Boom!)
Tom Hanks (Finch)
Cooper Hoffman (Licorice Pizza)

Back to Denzel Washington, the raves he’s getting for ‘Macbeth’ are very hard to ignore. The 66-year-old actor has been Oscar-nominated 8 times, having won 2 statuettes. He hasn’t slowed down either, some of the best work of his career has occurred in these last 10 or so years. Even if voters find ‘Macbeth’ to be impenetrable , and there will be many, it’ll still be too hard to resist voting Denzel.