Ian McKellen
(Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring)

This was the most fractured of the acting categories; a full 71 nominations occurred here as opposed to a mere 47 for Best Actor. As such, Ian McKellen was able to slip through the middle and capture our award for Best Supporting Actor. The dignity of his performance was what impressed me the most about it; it would have been very easy for the whole proceedings to become very silly without a moral center such as Gandalf. Ben Kingsley's pint-sized enforcer Don Logan captured second place; the image of him intimidating men seemingly twice his size was certainly an amazing feat. Steve Buscemi continues to get raves for his role as the misanthropic record collector in Ghost World and it's no different here, with a third place finish. This may very well be the role he was born to play. Tony Shalhoub took fourth place with his fast talking existentialist lawyer, Freddy Riedenschneider. Interestingly enough, the middle three of this category all came from films that made under $10 million at the box office. Ben Stiller makes the fifth 'nominee' in the category, with his neurotic and suspicious character making a connection with several voters.

Top Five
Actor	Film	Total Points
Ian McKellen	Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring	180
Ben Kingsley	Sexy Beast	155
Steve Buscemi	Ghost World	113
Tony Shalhoub	The Man Who Wasn't There	106
Ben Stiller	The Royal Tenenbaums	102

Candidates receiving first place votes
Actor	Film	Number of First Place Votes
Ben Kingsley	Sexy Beast	5
Ian McKellen	Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring	4
Steve Buscemi	Ghost World	3
Tony Shalhoub	The Man Who Wasn't There	2
Ben Stiller	The Royal Tenenbaums	2
Hugh Grant	Bridget Jones's Diary	1
Joe Pantoliano	Memento	1
Jude Law	A.I. Artificial Intelligence	1
Jim Broadbent	Moulin Rouge!	1
Jon Voight	Ali	1
Viggo Mortensen	Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring	1
William Fichtner	Black Hawk Down	1
James Bentley	The Others	1

Other actors receiving votes
Colin Firth (Bridget Jones's Diary), Paul Bettany (A Beautiful Mind, A Knight's Tale), Luke Wilson (The Royal Tenenbaums), James Gandolfini (The Mexican, The Man Who Wasn't There), Ed Harris (A Beautiful Mind), Brad Pitt (Ocean's 11), Owen Wilson (The Royal Tenenbaums, Zoolander), Jason Lee (Vanilla Sky), Ewan McGregor (Black Hawk Down), Sean Bean (Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring), Tom Sizemore (Black Hawk Down), Eric Bana (Black Hawk Down), Rupert Grint (Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone), Geoffrey Rush (Lantana), Richard Roxburgh (Moulin Rouge!), John Leguizamo (Moulin Rouge!), Justin Theroux (Mulholland Drive), Jon Voight (Pearl Harbor), Brad Pitt (Spy Game), James Van Der Beek (Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back), Vince Vaughn (Made), Elliot Gould (Ocean's 11), Frederico Luppi (The Devil's Backbone), Kumar Pallan (The Royal Tenenbaums), Dominique Pinon (Amélie), Hayden Christensen (Life as a House), Steve Buscemi (Monsters, Inc.), Rene Kirby (Shallow Hal), Martin Landau (The Majestic), Ian Holm (Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring), Robbie Coltrane (Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone), Alan Rickman (Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone), Ben Affleck (Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back), Carl Reiner (Ocean's 11), Goran Visnjic (The Deep End), Eduardo Noriega (The Devil's Backbone), Harold Pinter (The Tailor of Panama), Jamie Foxx (Ali), Andy Garcia (Ocean's 11), Timothy Spall (Rock Star), Anthony Hopkins (Hearts in Atlantis), Eugene Levy (American Pie 2), Jeff Bridges (K-Pax), Kurt Russell (Vanilla Sky), Monty Montgomery (Mulholland Drive), Bill Murray (The Royal Tenenbaums), Sergei Lopez (With a Friend Like Harry), Artus de Penguem (Améllie), Meat Loaf Aday (Focus), Delroy Lindo (Heist), Jack Black (Saving Silverman), Gabriel Byrne (Songcatcher)