2023 HLS Movie Awards: Best Actor Nominees

Welcome back to the HLS Movie Awards, this piece will be covering the Best Actor nominees and will briefly talk about each performance. Reminder as always, I do not split up leading versus supporting, the best performance deserves the spotlight no matter the screentime. Also, I do not do a select number of nominees to fill out, nor do I have a cutoff for the amount. On to the Nominees!

Reminder to be eligible for this year's HLS Movie Awards the film the performance was in had to be released publicly IN 2022, not at some film festival.

Nominees in alphabetical order

John Boyega - Breaking

    Honestly, I am furious this performance has not been racking up nominations all around the awards world, EASILY one of the best performances of 2022 and the film itself is worth a watch for it alone (the film is also very good).

Austin Butler - Elvis

    As a day 1 Elvis film fan I think it has been hilarious watching the internet start off by bashing this movie to now however months later finally admitting how good it was, including Austin Butler's performance.

Peter Dinklage - Cyrano

    Peter Dinklage shows SO much heart in this role and is the reason this film has become one of my favorite rewatches. Just so much passion shown with just a flick of his eyes and contortions of his mouth.

Colin Farrell - The Banshees of Inisherin

    Colin Farrell plays confused better than most working actors, and this movie is just filled with him being the second most daft person on the island who is constantly confused as to why this is happening to him. (spoilers) and his turn getting over that is so well done, bravo.

Brendan Fraser - The Whale

    As a lifelong fan of Brendan Fraser it makes me so happy to see him getting his flowers now, after deserving them for so long. And this is not some, ah fine we will let him have them, he earned every ounce of praise he is getting for this role.

Marc Maron - To Leslie

    Severely under talked about is how I would describe this performance. No offense to Marc Maron but I only knew him as a standup comedian, I do not believe I have ever seen him act before and after watching this movie I think we should all have very high expectations for each role he is in going forward. (Took a glance at his IMDb, yes of course I have seen him in stuff, but this is his first big meaty role and he excelled!)

Paul Mescal - Aftersun

    Loved watching Paul Mescal in this role, he delivers so much sadness and effort just to be a good dad it is heartbreaking to watch.

Hidetoshi Nishijima - Drive My Car

    Talk about heartbreak, Hidetoshi Nishijima nails the cold blank stare as a man who has truly had his heart torn out and is just trying to continue on with life. 

Ke Huy Quan - Everything Everywhere All At Once

    I am upset we missed out on a big potential chunk of his career, but I am so happy he is back in the spotlight. Key Huy Quan plays such an excellent balancing act in this film portraying both versions of himself while also putting on an excellent show stunt wise. Be kind.

Denzel Washington - Tragedy of Macbeth

    Denzel Washington is amongst the all-time greats for a reason, and nobody has ever made Macbeth more enjoyable to watch. Forget all other versions of the story if you have to watch it I would always choose this one. The power and gravatas mixed with so many other emotions from Denzel alone keeps you sucked into this film.

Thank you so much for reading! Be sure to follow me on Twitter @HaroldLStokes for updates on this year's HLS Movie Awards, as the rest of the nominees will be dropping today! Best acting Ensemble is up next!