2025 Emmys Lead ACTOR LIMITED/TV FILM -Forecasts

Variety Awards Circuit Section is the home for all Awards news and related content throughout the year, with the following: the official predictions for the upcoming Oscars, Emmys, Grammy and Tony Awards -Ceremonies, compiled by Variety Senior Awards -Editor Clayton Davis. The prediction pages reflect the current classification in the race and do not reflect personal preferences for each individual competition. As other formal (and informal) polls suggest, competitions are fluent and subject to change based on buzz and events. Predictions are updated every Thursday.

Excellent protagonist in a limited or anthology series or TV film commentary (updated April 3, 2025): Van Oscar nominees who leave their stamp on the small screen to Emmy hopeful ready for their first nod, big ones such as Colin Farrell, Stephen Graham and Paul Giamatti are among the best contenders of this season.

At the front of the peloton is Colin Farrell, whose spooky and transforming turn such as Oswald Cobblepot, aka “The Penguin”. Has inflamed the awards interview and sweep the autumn and winter ceremonies. Farrell disappears completely into the character in this grim, HBO noir -spin -off of ‘The Batman’, who expands the Mythos with emotional depth and tragic gravitas.

Stephen Graham continues his rise as one of the most respected dramatic actors who work today. In Netflix’s ‘adolescence’ he plays a troubled father trying to reconcile what his son has done or not. A raw, human version that Graham Masters, especially in the last episodes, that is nonsense, complex and heartbreaking.

The surprise outbreak of the season, Cooper Koch has amazed the audience with his representation of Erik Menendez in the anthology of Netflix’s “Samples”. In the footsteps of the Emmy-nominated turn of Evan Peters such as Jeffrey Dahmer, Koch taps a mix of vulnerability, repression and explosive emotion in a performance that refuses to look away viewers. But there will be enough space for both Menendez brothers, including Nicholas Alexander Chavez.

Brian Tyree Henry has long been too late for large Emmy recognition. After an Emmy nomination for “Atlanta” and an Oscar nomination for “Causeway” (2022), his role in “Dope Thief” can eventually bring him to the circle of the winner. In this sandy Apple TV+ Crime drama, Henry plays a former addict drawn in a final job that played in a deeper settlement with his past in a deeper settlement.

From a close run-up to the Oscar stage with ‘The Holdovers’, which earned him his second Oscar nomination and a Golden Globe victory, Paul Giamatti is back on the radar of Emmy Voters with his horrifying role in Netflix’s ‘Black Mirror’.

A show like “Black Mirror” inevitably leads to the debate about which episode is striking as the favorite of a viewer. For many, including this writer, that distinction can belong to ‘Elogy’, the fifth episode of season 7 in the leading role Academy Award nominated Paul Giamatti. A moving similarity about memory and lost love, it evokes the same emotional resonance as “Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind” (2004) and is likely to draw comparisons with the beloved “Black Mirror” episode, “San Junipero.” It can ultimately not be remembered as a highlight of the season, but as one of the strongest episodes in the history of the series, in addition to being Giamatti’s very best acting performance ever (a powerful achievement).

(The list of predicted nominees and contenders is incomplete and will be updated every Thursday during the TV awards season.)