Rank Denzel Washington's nominations with his competition.

1987:
1. Albert Brooks
2. Denzel Washington
3. Morgan Freeman
4. Sean Connery
5. Vincent Gardenia

1989:
1. Danny Aiello
2. Martin Landau
3. Denzel Washington
4. Marlon Brando
5. Dan Aykroyd

1992:
1. Clint Eastwood
2. Robert Downey, Jr.
3. Denzel Washington
4. Stephen Rea
5. Al Pacino

1999:
1. Richard Farnsworth
2. Russell Crowe
3. Denzel Washington
4. Sean Penn
5. Kevin Spacey

2001:
1. Tom Wilkinson
2. Russell Crowe
3. Denzel Washington
4. Will Smith
5. Sean Penn

2012:
1. Joaquin Phoenix
2. Daniel Day-Lewis
3. Bradley Cooper
4. Denzel Washington
5. Hugh Jackman

2016:
1. Viggo Mortensen
2. Denzel Washington
3. Andrew Garfield
4. Ryan Gosling
5. Casey Affleck

2017:
1. Daniel Day-Lewis
2. Denzel Washington
3. Daniel Kaluuya
4. Timothée Chalamet
5. Gary Oldman

1987:
1. Albert Brooks
2. Denzel Washington
3. Sean Connery
N/S:
Gardenia* I saw the movie when I was younger, can't remember anything about it, really.
Freeman

1989:
1. Martin Landau
2. Denzel Washington
3. Danny Aiello
4. Dan Aykroyd
N/S: Brando

1992:
1. Clint Eastwood
2. Stephen Rea
3. Al Pacino
N/S: Downey, Washington

1999:
1. Richard Farnsworth
2. Russell Crowe
3. Kevin Spacey
4. Denzel Washington
N/S: Penn

2001:
1. Tom Wilkinson
2. Russell Crowe
3. Denzel Washington
4. Sean Penn (am I the only guy that liked this performance?)
N/S: Smith

2012:
1. DDL
2. Bradley Cooper
3. Denzel Washington
4. Joaquin Phoenix
5. Hugh Jackman

2016:
1. Denzel Washington
2. Viggo Mortensen
3. Andrew Garfield
4. Ryan Gosling
5. Casey Affleck

2017:
1. DDL
2. Gary Oldman
3. Daniel Kaluuya
4. Denzel Washington
N/S: Chalamet

1987 is a good performance in a decent movie, but it had no place besting Brooks.

1989 was the year of Landau and nobody had any business beating him. Denzel's performance is solid enough, but not even the best of the ensemble (I thought Broderick and Freeman were the people who should have been honored). I guess that single tear scene made the Oscar voters cream their pants.

Haven't seen 1992, so let's move on.

1989 is another solid, dependable, unremarkable Denzel perf. Unfortunately for him, it is the year of Farnsworth and Crowe, both of which would have been fantastic winners. Spacey isn't too far behind (best thing about the movie). Washington limps behind simply because it's perfectly acceptable work, just like '89 and '87.

2001 is not unremarkable. Quite the opposite; it makes one sit up and take notice. Unfortunately, Wilkinson is gangbusters and nobody has any right taking him down.

2012 is a another very good performance, but DDL was a titan and Cooper stepped up for a very entertaining performance that I incline to like better. Washington is hampered by his script, is his biggest problem.

2016 was a year of unremarkable, solid enough nominees, and Washington is the only one who stepped up from the crowd. He was electric (and needed to be, as the movie around him was pretty lifeless), making every line, every scene he was in stand up and catch fire. It has a fury to it that is lacking in most of Washington's career.

2017. What the HELL WERE YOU THINKING, DENZ?

You haven't even seen Malcolm X!?! Jesus.That's an... interesting admission. Brave as well.I actually wouldn't feel comfortable commenting on any major actors career or abilities if I'd never bothered to watch what was widely considered their greatest recorded achievement. You lose so much context.I can talk about DeNiro and Peter O'Toole all day, but I can't talk about them with any sort of truth if I hadn't seen Raging Bull or Lawrence Of Arabia. Those single performances inform and give context to everything else they did.

I think in 2017, Washington was probably thinking it's time to put all these bullshit arguments about 'range' and 'transformation' to bed, and he did it spectacularly. What better way to do it than to play an autistic dork in way that makes Dustin Hoffman in Rain Man look like a cartoon character.It's an incredibly beautifully rendered character, and gave an autistic character a depth, respect and dimension often lacking in the hands of non-autistic actors. The kind that unfortunately gave way to those sadly accurate jokes and parodies in Tropic Thunder (Simple Jack!) He didn't let the tics substitute for the character, and that's rare. I'm actually pissed critics hamstrung that movie with negative reviews, because I think he could easily have won the Oscar with that peformance otherwise. Especially coming so soon after his Fences loss.

1987
Sean Connery, The Untouchables
Albert Brooks, Broadcast News

N/S
Denzel Washington, Cry Freedom
Morgan Freeman, Street Smart
Vincent Gardenia, Moonstruck

1989
Danny Aiello, Do the Right Thing
Martin Landau, Crimes and Misdemeanors
Dan Aykroyd, Driving Miss Daisy

N/S
Denzel Washington, Glory
Marlon Brando, A Dry White Season

1992
Clint Eastwood, Unforgiven
Stephen Rea, The Crying Game

N/S
Robert Downey Jr., Chaplin
Denzel Washington, Malcolm X
Al Pacino, Scent of a Woman

1999
Kevin Spacey, American Beauty

N/S
Richard Farnsworth, The Straight Story
Russell Crowe, The Insider
Denzel Washington, The Hurricane
Sean Penn, Sweet and Lowdown

2001
Denzel Washington, Training Day
Russell Crowe, A Beautiful Mind
Sean Penn, I Am Sam

N/S
Will Smith, Ali
Tom Wilkinson, In the Bedroom

2012
Bradley Cooper, Silver Linings Playbook
Joaquin Phoenix, The Master
Daniel Day-Lewis, Lincoln
Denzel Washington, Flight
Hugh Jackman, Les Misérables

2016
Casey Affleck, Manchester by the Sea
Viggo Mortensen, Captain Fantastic
Ryan Gosling, La La Land
Andrew Garfield, Hacksaw Ridge

N/S
Denzel Washington, Fences

2017
Timothée Chalamet, Call Me by Your Name
Daniel Kaluuya, Get Out
Daniel Day-Lewis, Phantom Thread
Gary Oldman, Darkest Hour
Denzel Washington, Roman J. Israel, Esq.