The Oscars are coming up in just a couple of days. This year’s crop of nominated performances is stellar, so with that in mind, we decided to discuss some of our favorite Oscar-winning performances of the 21st century! Let us know your favorite @SiftPop!
Black Swan is one of the best thrillers of the 2010s. The atmosphere that Darren Aronofsky builds with this production of Swan Lake is creepy and unsettling. You question reality at every turn, which he’s proven time and time again he is an expert at. But the movie doesn’t work unless the two leads, Natalie Portman and Mila Kunis, commit. Portman is remarkable in this role because she nails the slow decent into darkness in the name of glory. The work she put in to get the build and movement of a ballerina down shows her dedication to the role. Without this, Black Swan would merely be a cheap imitation of a ballet recital. With every move and every dance, Portman showcases an artistic commitment that made her the natural choice for the Academy Award in 2011. This is my favorite of her performances, because it represents all the attributes that I admire with her as a performer: poise, commitment, and range. (Mike Hilty)
The Joker might be one of the most challenging characters to effectively portray in fiction, because his personality isn’t fully understood by anyone, not even the Joker himself. He isn’t logical in what he wants, but he has a goal. He doesn’t just cause a bunch of mayhem randomly; there’s a clear plan for everything he does, and a definite reason for how it is done. When Batman asks him where the two hostages are, he doesn’t tell him at a random time for no reason; he times it so he only has time to save one, and he tells him the locations in reverse, so whoever Batman chooses to save will instead be the one to die. Later, when Batman comes at him on the Batpod, the Joker wants Batman to hit him to show the effect he’s had on Batman’s psyche. Heath Ledger immersed himself in the role — in preparation for filming, he isolated himself to enter the mindset of the chaotic and disturbed character. He said that during filming, he found throwing off the character at the end of the day difficult. His family rejected the idea that Ledger died as a result of this role, but I can see why some might suspect it had something to do with it, given how much he dedicated to it. It breaks my heart that he wasn’t there to savor one of the most deserving Oscar wins ever. (John Tillyard)
There are actors on list who give better performances than Russell Crowe in Gladiator. I am not an idiot. It’s not that Crowe is an incapable actor. He’s actually quite deft at comedy and his fair share of drama (while I do regret his attempt at musical acting, he’s actually not the worst you’ve ever heard sing). However, there is no one on this list with Crowe’s swagger and gravitas. He brings an odd combination of humility, wrath, and inspiration to role that could have just been a bitter man seeking revenge. It is such unique and incredible work that is nigh irreplicable. Director Ridley Scott tried to get it back with Paul Mescal in the 24-years-later sequel, and the movie lacked Crowe’s magnetism. His performance in Gladiator is peak acting. (Samuel Nichols)
Let’s be honest: Any actor playing a Nazi has a bit of a head start when it comes to portraying a great villain. However, to take that base level of evil and build it into a truly memorable sadist does take a considerable amount of skill, and few actors have done that better than Cristoph Waltz in his role as Hans Landa. Landa isn’t just menacing all the time; he’s also intelligent, charming, meticulously polite, and at times even strangely sympathetic to those he hunts. This incredible performance is on full display from the opening scene of the film — one of the best single scenes ever put to film — and Waltz keeps providing memorable moments throughout the runtime. It takes a masterful performance to make such a diabolical villain so delightful to watch, and in Inglourious Basterds, you can truly see a master at work. (Jake Hjort)
My general Oscars hot take is that I don’t know of an Oscar win more deserving than Emma Stone’s performance in La La Land. Except for maybe Emma Stone’s performance in Poor Things. I think we can all agree that Stone will go down as an all-time great, right? In La La Land, she plays opposite frequent screen partner Ryan Gosling, as Mia to his Sebastian. A romance for the ages brews between two hapless dreamers, setting a course for a destiny they cannot share. Filled with dazzling imagery and a stunning colour palette, La La Land evokes a chord within your soul that leaves you nostalgic for the dreams you laid aside because life got in the way. Then it strikes that chord like a thunder bolt, as if you awaken you from the stupor Damien Chazelle has so successfully pinned you under. It is a film from the golden age of Hollywood, for a new golden age. Of course, this film works in most part because of Stone’s nuanced and electric performance opposite what I think is Gosling’s most impressive role to date. You may be aware that Stone was not the first choice for for Mia; Chazelle wanted another Emma, as in Watson. I do often ponder if La La Land would have been as effective with Watson as Mia, but I never have once pondered whether Stone was right for the role, as it is a very resounding yes. And the Academy agreed. (Adam Ritchie)
I remember growing up on Halle Berry, especially in The Flintstones. So when I learned she won an Oscar, I was happy, and needed to watch Monster’s Ball. I went in blind, and I still remember being blown away by her rawness. In a movie with young Heath Ledger and Billy Bob Thornton, you will remember her performance the most, not because she bears it all physically, but emotionally. Her vulnerability, and the complex character she portrays, as a woman of color who is involved with a racist prison guard, who just happens to work in the same prison as her husband, who is awaiting his death sentence, stays with you. I have only watched this once, a long time ago, so I can’t remember all the details, but to this day, I remember how Berry’s performance made me feel. And as much as she stayed in the spotlight with the X-Men franchise and some other action movies, I wish someone would give her a bit meatier role again, because it has been too long since this amazing performance. (Luke Burian)
As a whole, Moonlight is obviously an incredible movie. But it’s probably at its best when Mahershala Ali is in it. He portrays one of the most nuanced, complex characters on this list, and in concert with Barry Jenkins’ writing and directing, Ali’s Juan is deeply human. He has a hardened persona as a Miami drug dealer, but that facade comes crashing down as soon as Little (Alex R. Hibbert) begins asking difficult questions. It’s a delicate tightrope which Ali walks, but he does it with such brutal honesty and conviction that I can rarely get it out of my head. (Robert Bouffard)
Sometimes, nothing’s more terrifying than someone being absolutely calm. Case in point: Anton Chigurh, played brilliantly by Javier Bardem in No Country for Old Men. The hitman on the trail of Llewelyn Moss (Josh Brolin), a hunter in Chigurh’s crosshairs after absconding with more than $2 million after stumbling onto a drug deal gone bad. Chigurh pursues Moss with a Terminator-esque determination, all while displaying the emotional intensity of someone on a casual stroll through a grocery store aisle. The pure lack of emotion in Bardem’s performance makes it all the more effective. Add to that a unique weapon for the ages and a tense standoff posing the question, “What’s the most you ever lost on a coin toss?” and you’ve got an absolutely unforgettable performance. (Jake Bourgeois)
I’ve been vocal about how I don’t typically care for performances where an actor plays a real person, especially when they win an award for it, but Cillian Murphy in Oppenheimer is particularly special. Murphy doesn’t simply do an impression of someone whose personality and mannerisms have been in the public eye for decades; instead, he completely transforms into J. Robert Oppenheimer, portraying different complex emotional and psychological states throughout the three-hour movie. In the beginning, Oppenheimer is blinded by progress and discovery, yet by the end, he’s performing a mysterious yet perhaps warranted, metaphorical self-flagellation. Murphy brings tons of nuance to the performance, and I’m in awe of him every time I watch the film. (Robert Bouffard)
Daniel Day-Lewis has become synonymous with the idea of method acting, as well as being the benchmark for acting as a craft. He has won three Best Actor Academy Awards, and one of those is for There Will Be Blood. In what is, for my money, the greatest performance of all time, from the greatest actor of all time, Day-Lewis fully embodies Daniel Plainview, the true manifestation of greed and self-serving behavior. Even taking in the baby of a dead drill worker is an act of self-service. This Oscar was entirely earned, because the mixture of physicality, facial acting, dialect, line delivery, and emotion is profound. Plainview is fully realized with Day-Lewis’ physical stance, his intensity, and towering presence. You would expect the character to be almost seven feet tall — that is just how committed and intimating he can be. The big acting choices make Day-Lewis’ performance so iconic and memorable. His “Milkshake” scene is unnerving, aggressive, and intelligent. Day-Lewis brings that all and more to a role which has become a measure of acting excellence. (Shane Conto)
The Oscars were never my thing to follow — that was until 2023, when Brendan Fraser was nominated for Best Actor for his role in The Whale. Fraser was an actor I grew up with, from loving him as the lovable George of the Jungle or as Rick O’Connell in The Mummy. If he was in a movie, I was seeing it. When Hollywood dropped him after speaking out about a sexual assault that happened to him, it seemed his leading man days were done. Then I heard about him playing Charlie — a gay, morbidly obese English teacher who tries reconnecting with his estranged daughter. Fraser lost himself in this role, and his performance had me bawling through the whole film. When he was nominated for Best Actor I hoped he would win, and I was glad when he did. He is a talent and a genuinely good person who deserved that award and the praise from it. Most people may never have thought Fraser would receive the golden statue, yet we were all happy for him when he did. (Austen Terry)
While J. Jonah Jameson may be a boss you definitely wouldn’t want to work for, he doesn’t hold a candle to Whiplash’s Fletcher when it comes to being an absolute… jerk… in J.K. Simmons’s filmography. In a true test of, “Do the ends justify the means?” there’s no doubt that the jazz band instructor certainly has a world-class band, while utilizing tactics that could make Bobby Knight blush. Simmons is absolutely terrifying as the dictatorial band director that pushes his musicians to their limits with abusive tendencies that create undeniably great performances. He can go from charming to over the top intense at the blink of an eye. It’s a career-best, career-defining performance that ran roughshod over the rest of the Best Actor In a Supporting Role field in 2015. While he’s played plenty of kindhearted people, and is probably a lovely person out in the wild, the strength of this performance alone would probably make you flinch if you ever come across the man himself in person, just out of reflex. (Jake Bourgeois)