The new movie starring Jeremy Allen White could break an Academy Awards streak that has lasted for more than half a decade. White had his breakout role when he was cast as Phillip “Lip” Gallagher in Showtime’s Shameless, which ran for 11 seasons between 2011 and 2021. He then rose to even greater fame by playing chef Carmen “Carmy” Berzatto in the FX on Hulu dramedy The Bear, a role for which he has won two Primetime Emmy Awards and three Golden Globes. This success has allowed him to expand his career into a number of notable movies as well.

The 34-year-old actor’s latest big-screen venture is the upcoming Springsteen: Deliver Me from Nowhere, in which he will portray iconic New Jersey rock star Bruce Springsteen. The movie, which is based on a 2023 biography by Warren Zanes, was directed by Crazy Heart‘s Scott Cooper and co-stars Jeremy Strong, Paul Walter Hauser, Odessa Young, Gaby Hoffmann, Stephen Graham, David Krumholtz, and Marc Maron. It is a dramatization of the development of Springsteen’s sixth album, 1982’s Nebraska. The movie, which features the star singing iconic tracks like “Born to Run,” is already garnering a certain amount of Oscar buzz for White.

Music Biopics Have Struggled At The Oscars In Recent Years

Even Frontrunners Have Struggled To Gain Traction

One potential hurdle to Jeremy Allen White earning his Oscar for Springsteen: Deliver Me from Nowhere is the fact that music biopics have not been performing well in acting categories in recent years. For instance, although the Bob Dylan biopic A Complete Unknown and the Elvis Presley biopic Elvis were both nominated for eight Academy Awards apiece, neither of them won any, even though stars Timothée Chalamet and Austin Butler were considered frontrunners in their seasons. Below, see a breakdown of every actor nominated for an Oscar for playing a real-life musician in a biographical or semi-biographical drama since 2021:

In addition to this string of Oscar losses, a number of music biopic stars have been snubbed by the Oscars altogether since 2021, including Angelina Jolie (who played Maria Callas in Maria), Kingsley Ben-Adir (who starred in Bob Marley: One Love), Marisa Abela (who played Amy Winehouse in Back to Black), Naomi Ackie (who starred in Whitney Houston: I Wanna Dance with Somebody), Robbie Williams (who portrayed himself as a CGI chimp in Better Man), and Jennifer Hudson (who played Aretha Franklin in Respect).

The most recent acting win for a music biopic is Renée Zellweger, who won Best Actress in 2020 for her performance as Judy Garland in Judy. The most recent Best Actor win for a music biopic was even longer ago, when Rami Malek won in 2019 for his portrayal of Freddie Mercury in Bohemian Rhapsody.

Why Jeremy Allen White Could Win An Oscar In 2026

There Are Many Factors Working In His Favor

In spite of the hurdles facing music biopics, the new Jeremy Allen White movie is still a strong contender for earning his first Oscar nomination. There are multiple reasons for this being the case, not the least of which being the fact that he has won two SAG awards for The Bear. Because members of the Screen Actors Guild make up the biggest branch of the voting body of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS), this already gives the performer a solid standing with the group that could be responsible for a nomination and an eventual win.

There are quite a few other factors working in the favor of Deliver Me from Nowhere, including the widespread popularity of Bruce Springsteen and the fact that its October 24 release date places it on the schedule at a peak time for awards season attention (this year’s Best Picture winner, Anora, debuted on October 18, 2024). Additionally, the star has undergone a physical and vocal transformation for the role, an approach which frequently garners the admiration of the Academy.

There is also precedent for an Oscar win, as Scott Cooper’s Crazy Heart earned Jeff Bridges a Best Actor win in 2010 for portraying a troubled country singer, though his character in the movie was fictional.

Jeremy Allen White Had One Movie Wrongly Shut Out Of Oscars Contention

He And His Co-Stars Were Snubbed In 2024

Another reason that Jeremy Allen White is in a prime position to earn an Oscar nomination for Springsteen: Delvier Me from Nowhere is the fact that he has already starred in a biographical drama that was snubbed by the Academy. In 2023’s The Iron Claw, he played real-life figure Kerry Von Erich, who was part of a wrestling dynasty that included his father Fritz Von Erich (Holt McCallany) and his brothers Kevin Von Erich (Zac Efron) and David Von Erich (Harris Dickinson). Although it initially had strong awards buzz, it was snubbed by both the Oscars and the Golden Globes.

It is possible that the Oscars will give White a nomination for his performance as Bruce Springsteen partially as a make-good for the snub, which saw the Best Supporting Actor award ultimately go to Robert Downey Jr. for Oppenheimer. The Iron Man star beat out fellow nominees Sterling K. Brown for American Fiction, Ryan Gosling for Barbie, Robert De Niro for Killers of the Flower Moon, and Mark Ruffalo for Poor Things.

What’s Standing Against Jeremy Allen White’s Oscar Chances

The 2025-2026 Season Is Compeтιтive

While there is a strong case for the anticipated 2025 movie potentially winning Jeremy Allen White his first Oscar and ending this negative streak for music biopics at the Oscars, he still has to face several hurdles. Even if he wins the nomination, the fact that the Deliver Me from Nowhere star is only 34 years old at the time of writing could work against him, as the Best Actor award has not gone to anyone under 40 since Rami Malek’s win for Bohemian Rhapsody in 2019, making for yet another Oscars streak of more than half a decade.

The star would also be facing strong compeтιтion. While Variety‘s Best Actor 2026 predictions do place Jeremy Allen White in the category, they are currently predicting that the award will go to Willem Dafoe for the Kent Jones drama Late Fame. Their other predicted nominees are Michael B. Jordan for Sinners, Jesse Plemons for Bugonia, and Dwayne Johnson for The Smashing Machine. If these predictions are accurate, the latter especially could steal votes from White, as Johnson is almost unrecognizable as real-life MMA fighter Mark Kerr in the Benny Safdie sports drama.

Source(s): Variety