For many, many weeks ESPN’s Adnan Virk and I were the only Gold Derby-ites to predict Ethan Hawke as a Best Actor finalist. Then he won the Best Actor trophy from the Gotham Awards and the New York Film Critics Circle. As of right now 21 out of 30 Gold Derby spitballers have included Hawke on their top-five contender lists. That’s quite an uptick. They wouldn’t get behind him on the merits of his First Reformed performance — sticking their necks out would have made them feel unsafe. They finally took the plunge when the Gothams and the NYFCC insisted that Hawke has heat. The other four are still Bradley Cooper (A Star Is Born), Viggo Mortensen (Green Book), Christian Bale (Vice) and Rami Malek (Bohemian Rhapsody).
