Oscar Bait: The Actors the Academy Loves By mathayus [39 more lists]

Want your movie to get Oscar love? Cast these actors. Judged by Academy Award success, with a tilt toward the awards of the past few years.

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Rank Name

1

Meryl Streep

The most nominated actor in Oscar history with 16 - Plus 2 wins. The icing on the cake: 4 nominations this decade with no wins. The Academy's gotta be just itching to throw another win her way. Cast her in a heart wrenching drama, maybe with a little of her Miranda Priestly character in there, and you've got it made.

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2

Sean Penn

Sean Penn splits everyone into two camps: You either hate him, or you're just irritated by him. If you're in the second group though, you probably realize he's a damn good actor. 2 wins and 4 nomination in the last decade make him the most decorated actor in that timeframe. Realistically he's not going to get another win any time soon - the Academy's been doing this for 80 years, they like to pace themselves. But Penn's full of energy, and loves making movies with about various outcasts from society - he's going to keep making it rain.

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3

Kate Winslet

Kate Winslet has garnered 6 Oscar nominations at a younger age than any other actor in history, and is fresh off a year where was it was actually bandied about that she could win Best Lead Actress and Best Supporting Actress on the same night. In most cases, the Academy's love affair with an actors cools for a while after they give up the hardware, but since most think they under-nominated her last year, I don't think that will happen.

Winslet's got the best chance to be the new Meryl Streep - with more edge. And by edge, I don't just mean more nudity, though of course that'll be a perk.

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4

George Clooney

The Academy held out for quite a while against Dr. Ross' advances, but when they fell for him, they fell hard. Clooney's got 5 nominations in the last 4 years. Granted one was for directing, and one was for writing - but that only makes the Academy feel that much more able torepress memories of the nippled Batsuit. Got a character with shady morals and a date with a comeuppance? Give George a call.

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5

Cate Blanchett

Me personally, I never would have thought that playing Elizabeth I was a franchise role, and the box office would seem to agree with me. The Academy though eats it up. Between those roles, and playing Katherine Hepburn and Bob Dylan, she's gotta be your first call whenever you want someone to play cool royalty.

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6

Judi Dench

Ahem, from the actress who played Elizabeth I twice to the actress who played her and actually won the Oscar. Dame Judi is the queen of matriarchal gravitas in Hollywood.

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7

Daniel Day-Lewis

Hard to place Daniel Day-Lewis on this list, you just know he has to be here. You can make a case for him at #1 - he's only been in a few films in recent years, and has two iconic award winning performances. What is clear though is that there's no one who personifies a force of nature on screen like Day-Lewis does.

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8

Philip Seymour Hoffman

Hollywood faces an eternal conundrum: They know people want to see beautiful people, but deep down they also know their films can only be taken seriously if there are actors who aren't prototypical heartthrobs. What to do? Well, every few years a non-heartthrob reaches a tipping point and then everyone clamors to get a piece of that singular everyman. So right now, we've got Hoffman. He's great, here's hoping he can keep this going for quite a while.

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9

Helen Mirren

I believe there's a rule somewhere that Royal Shakespeare Company alumni have to occupy 2 spots on a list like this. The British acting manifesto may have included domination of Harry Potter and the X-Men, but Oscar will always be the primary target.

Mirren is the latest British stage legend to graduate to the silver screen and become an instant giver of credibility to any flick with dreams of golden statuettes.

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10

Jack Nicholson

Can't leave Jack off the list. He may not be regularly making Oscar movies right now, but no male actor in history has more nominations than Jack does, and he hasn't lost any of his style. If you can convince him to leave the Lakers' bench for a while to play the lovable misanthrope in your prestige pic, you're in good hands.

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