There’s one every year: a man who delivers an intriguing breakout performance and inspires thirst across the sexual spectrum, finally assuming the mantle of Awards Season Boyfriend. He’s a flavor of Internet Boyfriend, but set against the specifically absurd parade of red carpets between November and March. Historically, such men are young and inventively dressed, like Timothée Chalamet in his harness-clad, Oscar-nominated, Call Me By Your Name ascendancy circa 2018—but cases have also been made for Brad Pitt in his golden comeback year of 2020 and Leonardo DiCaprio from 1997 to 2016.
This awards season—which is about to roar back into action with the BAFTAs, SAGs, Independent Spirit Awards, and, of course, the Oscars—there’s a bounty of new talent. Who is your ideal Awards Season Boyfriend? Take our quiz to find the one for you.
A: Interestingly Irish
B: Recently plucked from obscurity
C: Teen idol deftly leaping to film
D: Babygirl
E: Criminally underrated and finally getting his flowers
F: Daddy
A: Slurping his best friend’s bath water like the dregs of a fountain Coke on a hot day
B: Getting unceremoniously abandoned at boarding school over Christmas break
C: Controversially making a life with his abusive, older ex-teacher
D: Elevating the Civil Rights right-hand man that history forgot
E: Frolicking naked in the heather of his manor home while reading Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows
F: Making a light coating of post-apocalyptic dust look sexy
A: Fresh, k.d. lang-style spikes and a pearl necklace
B: Young Bob Dylan cosplay
C: Not one but two pairs of overlapping pants
D: A swath of bare chest and a flawless, floor-length gold Valentino coat
E: A proper three-piece suit, when he deigns to attend
F: Bottega Veneta and an orthopedic sling that only he can make fashion
A: Full-frontal nudity whilst vibing to Sophie Ellis Baxter
B: A chaste intergenerational bromance with a curdmudgeonly professor
C: Illicit sex with Natalie Portman
D: Flirtation and innuendo, mostly
E: Self-love in the bathtub
F: The rugged sexiness of a man just trying to stay alive
A: Homoerotically kissing his co-star at the BAFTAs
B: Taking it all in at the Vanity Fair party, one would predict
C: The only show bold enough to give him his due: the Indie Spirit Awards
D: The Oscars, where he’s the beloved long shot for best actor
E: Also homoerotically kissing his co-star at the BAFTAs
F: Taking a charming selfie with the Barbie cast at the SAG Awards, in another fashion sling
A: Posing ostensibly shirtless for GQ with a pigeon on his shoulder
B: Telling Dazed magazine: “Adrenaline and ignorance get me through life”
C: Holding a bouquet of broccoli on the cover of W
D: Revealing on Graham Norton that he met his husband through a Craigslist Missed Connections ad after walking by each other outside Walgreens!
E: Hosting a distinctly Gen Z episode of SNL
F: Proudly bringing his sister to the Emmys
A: Short kings
B: Brimming with swagger
C: Former CW stars
D: Brimming with gravitas but also married
E: Insanely tall, with erotic eyebrows
F: Mustachioed and meme-able
A: Paul Mescal
B: Adrian Brody
C: Jared Leto
D: Danny Glover
E: Timothée Chalamet
F: Oscar Isaac
The runaway star of Saltburn wooed you with his Awards Season Boyfriend bonafides: a deep well of talent, a cheeky fashion sense, and, in the grand Chalametian tradition, a homoerotic role that cracked the culture (except instead of peaches, it was a twisted graveside scene). You can say you knew him when, because Barry—who received an Oscar nod last year and is nominated for best actor at this weekend’s BAFTAs—is poised to hold many more awards seasons in his clutches.
You were won over by the quietly charming star of The Holdovers, who boasts the 2024 season’s Cinderella story: 21-year-old Sessa was plucked from obscurity as a senior hockey player-turned-drama student at Deerfield Academy, the Massachusetts prep school where the drama was filmed. He won Best Breakthrough honors at the Critics Choice Awards and is up for more at the BAFTAs and Indie Spirits, but it may have been Sessa’s appearance at the Golden Globes, where he gave sexy young Bob Dylan, that entered him into the Awards Season Boyfriend chat.
Reggie on Riverdale graduated to prestige actor and devastating Awards Season crush thanks to his role in the provocative May/December, loosely inspired by the Mary Kay Letourneau case. Win or lose at the Indie Spirit awards, Melton already has matinee idol good looks (including hair model hair) and impressive sartorial bravery—see: the double Balenciaga pants he wore at the film’s premiere.
So you’re a sucker for a deep baritone and unwavering on-screen gravitas? Aren’t we all. After impactful roles on Euphoria and The Walking Dead, Domingo is in the midst of a career renaissance thanks to his Oscar-nominated lead turn in Rustin, about Martin Luther King Jr.’s lesser-known right-hand man. Married to his husband, Raúl, whom he met through a Missed Connections ad, Domingo may not want you… but we get why you want him.
The ne plus ultra of Awards Season Boyfriends, the Aussie star is toweringly tall, conventionally gorgeous, and more than the sum of his good looks in the acting department. One can see why Keoghan’s character lost his ever-loving mind over him, and his well-worn Polos, in Saltburn, which earned him a BAFTA nod. As a bonus, Elordi has an outstanding collection of It Bags that he just might let you borrow?
There’s only one word for the Last of Us actor, SAG nominee, and wearer of fashion slings: daddy.
All of Us Strangers stars Paul Mescal and Andrew Scott may have already reached Internet thirst saturation point as Normal People’s Connell and Fleabag’s “Hot Priest,” but they remain forever crush-worthy in our hearts (and awards ballots).
