Respect. (CREDIT: Golden Globes/Screenshot)

You may have noticed that trophies are being handed out more than usual lately. You may have also noticed that the organizations that deliver those awards may be making questionable categorization decisions.

Around this time of year, I like to assess the situation and offer my own take on certain dilemmas, in particular whether a certain movie performance was a Lead or Supporting role. To be fair to the Oscars and other awards ceremonies, these decisions are subjective and not always clear. Reasonable people can disagree on these matters. But I’m not one to have my enthusiasm dampened my ambiguity!

Ergo, here is a selection of performances from 2024 getting awards attention and whether I think they should be considered Lead or Supporting.

(There are still a few movies in the awards conversation that I haven’t seen yet, so I may update my thoughts if I feel compelled to.)

-Cynthia Erivo is Lead and Ariana Grande is Supporting in Wicked. There’s plenty of Galinda, but the story is centered around Elphaba.
-Jesse Eisenberg is Lead and Kieran Culkin is Supporting A Real Pain, for essentially the same reason as the Wicked ladies
-Chloe East, Sophie Thatcher, and Hugh Grant are all Leads in Heretic.
-And Zendaya, Josh O’Connor, and Mike Faist are all Leads in Challengers!
-Demi Moore and Margaret Qualley are a single Lead in The Substance (not two separate Leads – remember, they are one)
-1/22/25 UPDATE: Despite not playing the title character, Zoe Saldaña is the Lead in Emilia Pérez, as the narrative is centered around her more than any other character. You could make a case for Karla Sofía Gascón either way – I’m leaning towards Supporting.

This assessment originally appeared in the Official Jeffrey Malone Newsletter. Subscribe here!