Oscars 2017: Best supporting actor nominees

Find out more about the best supporting actor nominees for the 89th Academy Awards, which will take place on 26 February 2017.

MAHERSHALA ALI

Age: 42

Nominated for: Moonlight

The character: Juan, a Miami drug dealer who befriends the troubled Chiron as a young boy.

Oscar record: No previous nominations.

The critics said: "At first glance, Juan's gold front teeth and slow-moving menace project a kind of intimidating power, but Mr Ali imbues him with an uncommon tenderness, and he becomes an unlikely mentor whom Chiron later emulates." [New York Times]

JEFF BRIDGES

Age: 67

Nominated for: Hell or High Water

The character: Marcus Hamilton, a Texas Ranger on the trail of two bank robbers.

Oscar record: Won best actor for Crazy Heart in 2010. Has been nominated for best actor twice more - for Starman (1985) and True Grit (2011). And he has been up for best supporting actor three times - for The Last Picture Show (1971), Thunderbolt and Lightfoot (1975), and The Contender (2001).

The critics said: "What's there to say about a man who makes it look so easy, and who - in one breathless, pivotal scene - runs through a range of emotion like a wild pony running across the land. Genius, any way you look at it." [Philadelphia Inquirer]

LUCAS HEDGES

Age: 20

Nominated for: Manchester by the Sea

The character: Patrick Chandler, a headstrong teenager who is forced to live with his brooding uncle after his father dies.

Oscar record: None

The critics said: "Hedges, as a temperamental teenager working through loss in his own authentically teenage way, is a real discovery." [Entertainment Weekly]

DEV PATEL

Age: 26

Nominated for: Lion

The character: Saroo Brierley, who was adopted by an Australian family as a child, and who embarks on a journey to trace his Indian roots.

Oscar record: None

The critics said: "Dev Patel doesn't appear until nearly an hour into Lion - but when he does his strong, soulful, Oscar-buzzed performance cuts deep." [Rolling Stone]

Michael Shannon (l) appears alongside Aaron Taylor-Johnson in Nocturnal Animals

MICHAEL SHANNON

Age: 42

Nominated for: Nocturnal Animals

The character: A wizened sheriff who goes on the trail of a gang who attacked a family on a deserted desert road.

Oscar record: Nominated for best supporting actor in 2009 for Revolutionary Road.

The critics said: "A classic, laconic, Stetson-wearing Texas lawman, terrifically played by Michael Shannon." [The Guardian]