Robert Downey Jr.’s Oscar win shows the weirdness of the Supporting categories

 

 

"The Supporting categories are tricky to define, and so prone to controversy that this is actually Downey’s second slightly controversial nomination in the category. (He was nominated in 2009 for Tropic Thunder, a film for which he donned blackface.) Some ambiguity is even baked into the design of the Oscars. The Academy’s official rules state that any performer can enter the competition in either the lead or supporting categories, and that voters in the Acting Branch of the Academy can decide individually where each performance belongs.

This ambiguity makes the Supporting categories particularly prone to category fraud, when studios enter actors who are clearly in lead roles into the Oscars under the Supporting category so that they’ll have a better chance of winning.

At the other end of the spectrum, some Best Supporting nominees barely even appear in the movie for which they win. "

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Robert Downey Jr.’s Oscar win shows the weirdness of the Supporting categories - Vox