However voters are conflicted on whether to support the actor after last year's slapping incident with comedian Chris Rock. He plays "Whipped Peter", an enslaved person who escapes from a Louisiana plantation to join the Union Army.
Some voters feel if he is exceptionally good, he should be considered for an Oscar adding how it wouldn't be fair to penalise others who have worked on the movie because of Will Smith's ill-judged reaction to Chris Rock's joke last March.
As it stands, he is banned from attending the awards ceremony for 10 years.
