For Your Consideration:
Best Actor

MATT DAMON, The Good Shepherd

Cold. Emotionless. Monotone. Not the hallmarks of your typical Oscar-winning performance. Yet it's precisely that stoicism that makes Damon's turn in The Good Shepherd so absorbing. Damon plays Edward Wilson, an American spy through whom we witness the birth of the CIA. Wilson proves to be fascinating but unknowable, even as the secrets of a nation — and a cryptic heart — flicker across his face.