Timothee Chalamet could have made history in March when he was up for Best Actor at the Oscars for “Call Me by Your Name.” At age 22 he was the third youngest actor ever nominated for that award, and he would have been the youngest by far to win, but he couldn’t surmount the sentiment around Gary Oldman (“Darkest Hour”), an overdue veteran playing a well-known historical role. However, Chalamet’s supporters have a chance to make it up to him by voting for him to win Best Performance in a Movie at the MTV Movie and TV Awards this June.
Chalamet stars in “Call Me” as Elio, a teenager living in Italy who falls in love with one of his father’s students (Armie Hammer). It’s an understated, critically acclaimed indie film, and thus not the kind that usually wins at MTV’s kudos. These awards are decided by fans voting online, so the winners tend to skew younger and more broadly popular. Consider last year when the big winners were blockbusters like “Beauty and the Beast,” “Get Out” and “Hidden Figures.”
But last year the MTV community went in an unusual direction by awarding Ashton Sanders and Jharrel Jerome Best Kiss for “Moonlight,” which was also a critically acclaimed indie about a same-sex romance. That demonstrates the young audience’s openness to smaller films with lesser-known stars as well as their openness to gay love stories.
Chalamet has some stiff competition from actors in big money-makers, including Chadwick Boseman (“Black Panther“), Ansel Elgort (“Baby Driver”) and Daisy Ridley (“Star Wars: The Last Jedi“). But Chalamet ranks a close second in our early predictions with odds of 11/4, which are based on the combined predictions of hundreds of Gold Derby users who have entered their picks thus far in our predictions center. He trails Boseman, who has the lead with 1/1 odds.
At fan-voted awards like these it’s certainly an advantage for Boseman that his film’s worldwide box office gross is more than 30 times that of “Call Me by Your Name.” But a passionate cult fan base can still push you over the top, especially at awards that have favored young heartthrobs in recent years like Robert Pattinson (“Twilight”) and Josh Hutcherson (“The Hunger Games”).
That may be why many of our elite users are going against the grain by predicting Chalamet to win. He’s backed by 7 of our Top 24 Users who got the highest scores predicting last year’s awards and by 2 of our All-Star Top 24 who got the highest scores when you combine the last two years’ predictions. Do you agree with them that Chalamet is poised to upset?
Be sure to make your MTV Movie and TV Award predictions so that Hollywood studio executives and top name stars can see how their films and shows are faring in our odds. Don’t be afraid to jump in now since you can keep changing your predictions until winners are announced on June 18. And join in the fierce debate over the 2018 MTV Awards taking place right now with Hollywood insiders in our film forums. Read more Gold Derby entertainment news.
