Denzel Washingtoncould accomplish a rare career milestone if his next movie performs well. Washington is a celebrated actor whose career kicked off in 1975, though he did not have his breakthrough onscreen role until he took on the role of Dr. Phillip Chandler in the medical dramaSt. Elsewhere, which ran for six seasons from 1982 through 1988.
Although Washington was part of the main cast of the series through season 6,he had already begun to transition into being a movie star by the time it went off the air, with his most notable role during that period being that of real-life South African activist Steve Biko in the 1987 apartheid dramaCry Freedom.
A wide variety of notableDenzel Washington movieshave come to the big screen since then. These range from comedies like 1990’sHeart Conditionto Westerns like 2016’sThe Magnificent Sevento action movies such as 2013’s2 Gunsand theEqualizertrilogy todramas including 1991’sMississippi Masalaand 1993’sPhiladelphia.
Most recently,Washington played Macrinus in the Ridley Scott legacy sequelGladiator II, starring opposite Paul Mescal, Pedro Pasal, Connie Nielsen, Fred Hechinger, and Joseph Quinn. However, his next movie is even more promising than that title, which was the 12th highest-grossing release of 2024.
Denzel Washington Can Achieve His 10th Oscar Nomination With His Next Movie
It Reunites Him With An Iconic Director After Nearly 20 Years
The movie that could put the star in one of the loftiest tiers for any actor is 2025’sHighest 2 Lowest, which is the nextcollaboration between Denzel Washington and Spike Lee. Lee previously directed Washington in 1990’sMo' Better Blues, 1992’sMalcolm X, 1998’sHe Got Game, and 2006’sInside Man.
Highest 2 Lowest, which also stars Jeffrey Wright, ASAP Rocky, Ilfenesh Hadera, and Ice Spice, isa modernized remake of Akira Kurosawa’s 1963 movieHigh and Low, which itself is based on Ed McBain’s 1959 bookKing’s Ransomand follows a tycoon’s conflict with a kidnapper.
The movie earned glowing reviews after its Cannes premiere on May 19. At the time of writing,it holds a solidly Fresh Rotten Tomatoes score of 89%aggregated from 36 different critics' reviews. One of these critics wasScreenRant’s own Graeme Guttman, who gave the movie a score of 7 out of 10.
Read an excerpt from hisHighest 2 Lowestreviewbelow:
There’s plenty to love in Highest 2 Lowest. If you ever wanted to see ASAP Rocky and Denzel Washington in a rap battle, here’s your chance. Washington is, as always, on fire, and his performance easily moves between morally dubious tycoon, loving family man, and vengeful anger.
If its critical reception continues in this vein,Highest 2 Lowestcould earn Denzel Washington his 10th nomination for an acting Oscar. He was previously nominated as an actor forCry Freedom, 1989’sGlory,Malcolm X, 1999’sThe Hurricane, 2001’sTraining Day, 2011’sFlight, 2016’sFences, 2017’sRoman J. Israel, Esq., and 2021’sThe Tragedy of Macbeth, and as a producer forFences.
Every Actor With 10 Or More Acting Nominations At The Oscars
Denzel Washington Could Become The Sixth
If Denzel Washington, who won Best Supporting Actor forGloryand Best Actor forTraining Day, gets his 10th Oscar nomination for his performance inHighest 2 Lowest,he would become only the sixth actor in history to have hit that awards milestone. Below, see a breakdown of every star with eight or more acting nominations:
21
3
12
4
Morning Glory(1933),Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner(1967),The Lion in Winter(1968),On Golden Pond(1981)
One Flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest(1975),Terms of Endearment(1983),As Good as It Gets(1997)
11
2
10
1
Hamlet(1948)
TheSpike Lee moviecould end up making Denzel Washingtononly the third male actor in history to ever hit that milestone, and the first Black actor of any gender to do so. In the history of the Academy Awards, only 53 Black male actors have earned Oscar nominations in either the Best Actor or Best Supporting Actor categories.
While it is unknown how many Black actors might be nominated alongside Denzel Washington in the 2025-2026 awards season,earning his 10th nomination in 2026 would mean that roughly 18% of that entire slate of nominations for Black male actors have gone to Washingtonover the course of his career.
Denzel Washington Winning An Oscar Would Be Another Huge Milestone
There Are Very Few Three-Time Winners
While theDenzel Washington remakecould help him hit an impressive milestone even if it only gets him a nomination, if it nabs him his third Oscar win, it would also cement his status in Hollywood history. It would put him in even more rarefied air, asonly three of the stars with more than 10 nominations won three or more times.
Overall,only seven people of any gender have so far won three or more acting Oscars. Washington would be joining an elite group that includes Katharine Hepburn (whose four wins make her the single person with the most acting Oscars), Meryl Streep, Jack Nicholson, Ingrid Bergman, Daniel Day-Lewis, Frances McDormand, and Walter Brennan.
Brennan won forCome and Get It(1936),Kentucky(1938), andThe Westerner(1940), Bergman won forGaslight(1944),Anastasia(1956), andMurder on the Orient Express(1974), Day-Lewis won forMy Left Foot(1989),There Will Be Blood(2007), andLincoln(2012), andMcDormand won forFargo(1996),Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri(2017), andNomadland(2020).
Nomadlandmarks McDormand as the most recent performer to have won three Oscars.
Should Denzel Washington join that group as well, he would become the fourth male actor to do so and the first Black actor. Additionally, he would becomethe first male actor to have won three Oscars in more than a decade.
Denzel Washington’s Oscars Nominations Streak Would Be Very Impressive
His Career Longevity Is Almost Unprecedented
While earning 10 potential Oscar nominations and three potential wins would be impressive in its own right, addingHighest 2 Lowestto the roster ofDenzel Washington’s Oscar-nominated performanceswould also markan astounding chronological streak for the actor.
So far,Washington has been nominated at least once per decade since his original nominationin 1988, earning two nods in the 1990s, two in the 2000s, three in the 2010s, and one so far in the 2020s. However, the Spike Lee movie offers him an opportunity to continue this streak for every decade of his life since his nomination forCry Freedom.
Denzel Washington was born in Mount Vernon, New York on Aug 12, 2025.
So far, the actor has been nominated in his thirties, forties, fifties, and sixties. However, he did not turn 70 until 2024, two years after his most recent nomination, forThe Tragedy of Macbeth. Therefore, a nomination forHighest 2 Lowestwould allow him to continue his streak into his seventies.
WhileDenzel Washingtonis already one of the most decorated actors in history, accomplishing these milestones with his next movie would further enhance his legacy. It would also be a fitting way to honor what is likely to be the final collaboration between him and Spike Lee, as Lee told audiences at Cannes (perThe Guardian).
