Michael Bay gets to vote on Best Director

[Transmogrified Tiger]

Typically villains aren't considered leading actors, especially when the story has them following around other characters, instead of portraying their journey.

[ghostrunner]

I've always assumed it had to do with total screen time but it's really not clear.

Hopkins won Best Actor for Silence of the Lambs despite only being onscreen for 16 minutes or so, which I thought was fine. He's all over that movie even when he's not in the scene.

[omaha_red]

I've always assumed it had to do with total screen time but it's really not clear.

Hopkins won Best Actor for Silence of the Lambs despite only being onscreen for 16 minutes or so, which I thought was fine. He's all over that movie even when he's not in the scene.

and the actress who played denzel washington's mom in "american gangster" was up
for best supporting actress and i bet she didn't have more than 5 minutes of total screen time.. i'm not exaggerating either.. i don't get that either.. was she good? sure.. but i'm assuming there were a few more
actresses that were a bit more deserving..

[Popeye_Card]

How do you vote for best director? How do you know the guy wasn't terrible and the actors bailed him out?

that's a pretty good question.. but i'm sure that the guys that get nominated
are nominated for a pretty good reason..

also, my question.. how the hell do they distinguish what a "supporting actor" is?

javier bardem is the star of "no country".. yet he's up for "supporting actor"..

Al Pacino was up for best supporting actor for the Godfather (along with Caan and Duvall) despite being the central character of the movie AND having far more screen time than Brando (who won for Best Actor). That has always confused the heck out of me. It's not like you can't have two Best Actor candidates from the same movie--there were two from Sleuth that very year.