The Academy Award nominees for best performance by an actor in a supporting role:

Alan Arkin in Argo
Robert De Niro in Silver Linings Playbook
Philip Seymour Hoffman in The Master
Tommy Lee Jones in Lincoln
Christoph Waltz in Django Unchained

Mark Wahlberg in The Departed (2007). He would go on to be nominated for Best Supporting Actor for the 79th Academy Awards. He lost to Alan Arkin, no slouch, of Little Miss Sunshine. Still, this was perhaps the best performance the man formerly known as Marky Mark has ever given?

Mark Wahlberg in The Departed (2007). He would go on to be nominated for Best Supporting Actor for the 79th Academy Awards. He lost to Alan Arkin, no slouch, of Little Miss Sunshine. Still, this was perhaps the best performance the man formerly known as Marky Mark has ever given?