I have closely followed the awards season since 2015/16. While it isn’t an indicator of what is or is not essential in cinema, there is still something magical about the Oscars and, for the creatives, something special about receiving an Academy Award. When the Editor-In-Chief of this fantastic website, Dave Giannini, asked for more coverage regarding the awards season, I immediately jumped on the opportunity. Here, I will talk about one of my favorite categories, Best Supporting Actor and some of my recent favorite memories regarding it.

A film is nothing without its actors; similarly, a leading performance is nothing without a dedicated and supporting cast willing to back up the faces of a film. For the most part, these performances are hidden within the shadows of a movie, only used to elevate the leading performance to higher heights. However, on occasion, a supporting performance can be so powerful, so mesmerizing, and so memorable that the audience is drawn more to the supporting cast than to the actual leads.

Supporting performances also have the luxury of being more free-flowing than leading performances. They can be more eccentric, bombastic, and sometimes more villainous than a lead. Antagonists, character actors, and funny men are some performances that get a chance to shine for a supporting role in a film. This freedom can sometimes lead to supporting performances gaining love during awards season, thanks to just how memorable they were for one reason or another.

When it comes to the category of Best Supporting Actor, this has been shown immensely throughout history, but especially over the past couple of years. What other category would give a purely comedic performance like Ken from Barbie (2023) the recognition it rightfully deserves? Even if Ryan Gosling was bested by Robert Downey Jr. (who also received a nomination for a comedic performance in 2008’s Tropic Thunder for portraying the dude playing the dude disguised as another dude), Supporting Actor has been a way to award and recognize some of the most memorable performances in film, and here are some of my favorites in recent history.

2022: Troy Kotsur – CODA

I want to discuss Troy Kotsur’s win in the best picture-winning film CODA. I first saw CODA at Sundance in early 2021, and Kostur’s performance struck me immediately. Kotsur, a deaf actor, played a father in an almost entirely deaf family, except for his daughter. He had to deal with the weight of not only his fishing business and the issues that come from being a deaf fisherman but also coming to terms with his daughter’s choice not to join the family business and pursue music instead. Kotsur’s humor was the first thing that stood out to me (which followed over into his incredible speeches during his award run), but it was the emotion he brought to the film that stuck with me long after. After first viewing, I knew that this was a performance that needed to be recognized, and luckily, I was right as Kotsur wound up winning most of the season en route to becoming only the second deaf actor to win an Oscar. It was a win and a moment I will never forget.

2023: Ke Huy Quan – Everything Everywhere All at Once

The back-to-back of Troy Kotsur for CODA and Ke Huy Quan for Everything Everywhere All at Once might be one of the best pairs of wins in this category in history. While Kotsur came out of nowhere to win his Oscar, Quan was a well-known actor, or at least he used to be. An actor who, as a kid, was a pivotal member of a pair of famous 80s films (Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom and The Goonies) but virtually disappeared for almost 30 years. Luckily, the directing duo of Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert didn’t forget the actor and provided him with the role of a lifetime. Like Kotsur, Quan spent the entire season genuinely happy to be in the same room as his peers, and every speech he gave had an authentic feeling that reminded everyone just how impactful awards and recognition can be.

2017: Mahershala Ali – Moonlight

As I mentioned earlier, the 2015/16 season was the first time I paid attention to the Oscars. The following year (2016/17 season) would bring about a moment forever etched in Oscars history with the Best Picture mix-up of La La Land and Moonlight. While I love both films and have my opinion on whether it was the right movie or not (it was), Mahershala Ali’s win for best supporting actor was equally as moving. Ali came into the night with not only the least amount of screentime of the Oscar 5, but he also only had a SAG win to his name after losing the Golden Globe to Aaron Taylor-Johnson (who missed a nomination in favor of co-star Michael Shannon for Nocturnal Animals) and BAFTA to Dev Patel (Patel won for Lion), all while being arguably the most unknown of the nominees (Lucas Hedges had less work to his name, but his father, Peter Hedges, was an Oscar nominee himself). Moonlight is not the movie it was without Ali’s magnificent, tender, and emotional performance, and even if he was only in the film for approximately 20 minutes, his impact lasted the entire 111.

Honorable Mention: 2021: Daniel Kaluuya – Judas and the Black Messiah

How could I not mention Kaluuya’s speech, where he talked about how amazing it was that his parents met and had sex? It’s an all-time Oscar speech.