Robert Pattinson Is Having His Best Year Ever With 'Primetime,' 'The Drama,' 'The Odyssey' and 'Dune 3.' Will the Oscars Recognize Him?

Four Robert Pattinsons are better than one, and that makes his upcoming Oscar run a bit more complicated.

In "Primetime," Pattinson sits alone in a dim Florida room, reading a stranger's chat logs aloud. He's playing Chris Hansen, host of the hidden-camera series "To Catch a Predator," the man who turned police stings into television events that battled for ratings against the likes of ABC's "Lost." It's the most uncomfortable thing Pattinson has ever done on screen — and it could be what finally gets him an Oscar nomination.

At 40, he's yet to be recognized despite acclaimed turns in "Good Time," "The Lighthouse" and "The Rover." This year, Pattinson has stacked the deck: indies, franchises and, in the middle of it all, shooting the next "Batman" movie with Matt Reeves.

"Primetime" seems to be the obvious one

In Lance Oppenheim's film, which played in competition at Venice — earning a seven-minute standing ovation — and opens Sept. 25 through A24, Pattinson has what looks like his clearest awards vehicle. Oppenheim's Hansen is a showman, the connective tissue of an anti-hero origin story à la "Joker" and "American Psycho." The film isn't out to canonize him; it watches everything that made him larger than the premise of the show: the ratings, the crew, the wannabe actors playing decoys and the audience who gobbled it up at home.

Pattinson doesn't ask anyone to root for Hansen, rather he asks them to sit with a man they've known from television and watch him squirm.

And he isn't the only highlight. Skyler Gisondo is terrific as Dan Plumb, the hopeful actor hired to play the bait, while Emmy winner Merritt Wever gives the producer an edge as the operation's compromises pile up. And then there's the real Hansen, angling his way into the rollout with countless interviews — a sideshow, and sideshows keep a title in the conversation.

The vote-splitting problem

He's very good in Kristoffer Borgli's comedy "The Drama" as a museum curator whose wedding quietly comes apart. In another year, it might have been the campaign. But it came out in April, and "Primetime" is the more recent entrant in a brutal lead race that already includes his "Odyssey" co-star Matt Damon, Andrew Scott ("Elsinore"), John Malkovich ("Wild Horse Nine") and, still to come, Tom Cruise ("Digger").

The supporting race could be the leaner pathway

In "The Odyssey," Pattinson plays Antinous, ringleader of the suitors circling Penelope, one piece of Nolan's huge ensemble in what became a billion-dollar phenomenon. Best picture contenders of that size can float a supporting player. The question for Universal is whether the part is big enough, and sticky enough, to be worth the political capital.

"Dune: Part Three," arriving Dec. 18, is the other option and potentially the showier one. Scytale is a bigger swing, Villeneuve is in his corner and Warner Bros. has a prime December date. The first two "Dune" films drew 15 Oscar nominations between them — none of them for acting.

Could he land more than one nod? Jamie Foxx pulled it off in 2004, Cate Blanchett in 2007 and Scarlett Johansson in 2019. And actors can now be double-nominated in the same category following an Academy rule update earlier this year.

That's no guarantee. "Primetime" might play too harshly for a chunk of the Academy, while "The Odyssey" and "Dune: Part Three" could end up as technical players. Nonetheless, Pattinson stopped having us ask whether he was a great actor a while ago. What's left is for the Academy — and its four Pattinsons — to talk themselves into checking the right box.