Five nominations for the award for Best Actor, and as usual they fall out of the movies that are in the running for Best Picture.

The favourite with Unibet for Best Picture is 12-Years a Slave and so it should come as no surprise to learn that Chiwetel Ejiofor is one of the favourites for the Best Actor award, for his portrayal of Solomon Northup: the New Yorker who was sold into slavery in the late1800s and wrote about his experiences in a set of memoirs.

Ejiofor is currently 7/2 at most bookmakers, but that doesn’t make him the favourite to land the Oscar, instead that honour falls to Matthew McConaughey who had to lose over 14kg for his role as Ron Woodroof, an AIDS patient who starts smuggling illegal pharmaceuticals when he starts to realize they are having a better effect on his health than the drugs he is receiving from health care.

That dedication, and superlative performance, is the main reason McConaughey is the favourite to add the Best Actor award, to his recent Golden Globes success, for his performance in the Dallas Buyers Club.

Most bookmakers have McConaughey at 2/9 to pick up the award, in what is his first Academy Award nomination.

If you are looking for an outside shot then why not pick up the 11/1 on offer for Leonardo DiCaprio’s portrayal of the ‘Wolf of Wall Street’ Jordan Belfort; a stockbroker who manages to turn peanuts into millions and back to peanuts again. It is DiCaprio’s fourth Academy Award nomination and he is yet to win one.

Nominations

Christian Bale (American Hustle)

Bruce Dern (Nebrasaka)

Leonardo DiCaprio (The Wolf on Wall Street)

Chiwetel Ejiofor (12-Years a Slave)

Matthew McConaughey (The Dallas Buyers Club)

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