A Look at the Oscar Race for Best Supporting Actor and Actress: The Nominees, Who Should Win and Who Will Win

As part of Popculturology's Oscar Week, we're going to be breaking down the Best Picture, Director, Actor, Actress, Supporting Actor and Supporting Actress characters. We're going to cover the two Supporting races today, and then touch on the rest of this group each day this week.

The Best Supporting Actor Class of 2013 is full of Oscar veterans, with all five nominees already owning an Oscar. It's not often that you get a group of nominees as veteran as these guys. What makes this category even more impressive is when you see the names of the actors who missed the cut in 2013, with actors like Leonardo DiCaprio and John Goodman not making it.

The nominees for Best Supporting Actress aren't new to the Oscar game either, with all five already claiming at least one nomination in the past. Unlike Best Supporting Actor, though, which is made up of mostly actors with decades of experience, Best Supporting Actress mixed it up, with longtime vets like Sally Field competing with actresses just getting into the Oscar game like Anne Hathaway.

Head past the jump to check out all the nominees for Best Supporting Actor and Best Supporting Actress, including their Oscar histories, who should win and who will win.

The Nominees for Best Supporting Actor
Alan Arkin
Lester Siegel (Argo)
Oscar history: The Russians Are Coming, the Russians Are Coming (1966, nominated for Best Actor), The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter (1968, nominated for Best Actor), Little Miss Sunshine (2006, won for Best Supporting Actor)

Robert De Niro
Pat Salitano Sr. (Silver Linings Playbook)
Oscar history: The Godfather Part II (1974, won for Best Supporting Actor), Taxi Driver (1976, nominated for Best Actor), The Deer Hunter (1978, nominated for Best Actor), Raging Bull (1980, won for Best Actor), Awakenings (1990, nominated for Best Actor), Cape Fear (1991, nominated for Best Actor)

Philip Seymour Hoffman
Lancaster Dodd (The Master)
Oscar history: Capote (2005, won for Best Actor), Charlie Wilson's War (2007, nominated for Best Supporting Actor), Doubt (2008, nominated for Best Supporting Actor)

Tommy Lee Jones
Thaddeus Stevens (Lincoln)
Oscar history: JFK (1991, nominated for Best Supporting Actor), The Fugitive (1993, won for Best Supporting Actor), In the Valley of Elah (2007, nominated for Best Supporting Actor)

Christoph Waltz
Dr. King Schultz (Django Unchained)
Oscar history: Inglourious Basterds (2009, won for Best Supporting Actor)

Who Should Win
Robert De Niro. Look at that list of movies under his Oscar history. Those are just the roles that got him Academy recognition. De Niro is one of our greatest actors, but thanks to his role in the Meet the Parents films, that's a fact that's been easy to forget these past few years. Silver Linings Playbook is the movie that slaps you in the face and makes you remember that this is Robert De Niro, not some Viagara punchline in a crappy second sequel.

Who Will Win
Tommy Lee Jones. The Academy loves historical roles, and if it wasn't for the Academy's snub of Ben Affleck and the wave of support it garnered for Argo, Jones would be just one of an armful of Oscars that Lincoln would be taking home this Sunday. Does Jones deserve the award? Yes. Is he better than De Niro. Nope.

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The Nominees for Best Supporting Actress
Amy Adams
Peggy Dodd (The Master)
Oscar history: Junebug (2005, nominated for Best Supporting Actress), Doubt (2008, nominated for Best Supporting Actress), The Fighter (2010, nominated for Best Supporting Actress)

Sally Field
Mary Todd Lincoln (Lincoln)
Oscar history: Norma Rae (1979, won for Best Actress), Places in the Heart (1974, won for Best Actress)

Anne Hathaway
Fantine (Les Miserables)
Oscar history: Rachel Getting Married (2008, nominated for Best Actress)

Helen Hunt
Cheryl Cohen-Greene (The Sessions)
Oscar history: As Good as It Gets (1997, won for Best Actress)

Jacki Weaver
Dolores Solitano (Silver Linings Playbook)
Oscar history: Animal Kingdom (2010, nominated for Best Supporting Actress)

Who Should Win
Anne Hathaway. While I wasn't a fan of Les Miserables as a whole (Tom Hooper needs to go back to director school), there's no denying that Hathaway stole the show. Her performance of I Dreamed a Dream was gut-wrenching, and her breakdown (while portrayed much too quickly in this film) was heartbreaking. Had Les Miserables cast an actress other than Hathaway, there's a very good chance that the film would have lacked the emotional punch that her performance delivered.

Who Will Win
Anne Hathaway. Besides Daniel Day-Lewis winning for Best Actor, Hathaway winning Best Supporting Actress is the closest thing we have for a lock at the 85th Academy Awards.