Every Performance Nominated at the Oscars this Year Ranked

Twenty actors have been nominated for Oscars across four categories for their performances in last year’s movies. Here is my ranking.

After a particularly unpredictable Oscar season, we now have twenty actors nominated across four categories including seven previous winners and eight first-time nominees. I took on the monumental task of ranking all twenty performances from best to worst. Agree or disagree? Let me know!

20. Javier Bardem as Desi Arnaz in Being the Ricardos

Best Actor | Javier Bardem, who won an Oscar for Best Supporting Actor for No Country for Old Men, isn’t bad in Being the Ricardos as he is woefully miscast.

19. J.K. Simmons as William Frawley in Being the Ricardos

Best Supporting Actor | J.K. Simmons, who won an Oscar for Best Supporting Actor for Whiplash, has a couple of strong scenes with Nicole Kidman as Lucille Ball that are about as emotional as the movie gets. However, his impact and screentime are limited. His co-star Nina Arianda deserved a nom.

18. Ciarán Hinds as Pop in Belfast

Best Supporting Actor | “Too long a sacrifice can make a stone of the heart.” Hinds does fine work as the “older man who delivers sage and witty advice,” but the role never elevates further than that.

17. Will Smith as Richard Williams in King Richard

Best Actor | Will Smith, on his third Best Actor nomination, delivers the role of Serena and Venus Williams’ father with as much movie star gravitas as you would expect from him. However, his performance is safe and expected unlike his co-star further down on this list.

Will Smith is nominated for Best Actor for his role as Richard Williams in King Richard. — Will Smith is nominated for Best Actor for his role as Richard Williams in *King Richard.*

16. Dame Judi Dench as Granny in Belfast

Best Supporting Actress | After winning an Oscar for her 8-minute performance in Shakespeare in Love, Dame Judi Dench is up again for a similarly sharp-tongued role. Her emotional grandstanding speech to close at the movie got her the nomination, but the subtler work from co-star Catriona Balfe deserved her spot.

15. Nicole Kidman as Lucille Ball in Being the Ricardos

Best Actress | Nicole Kidman, already an Oscar winner in Best Actress for The Hours, fails to disappear into the role of Lucille Ball even if the work she does is admirable — particularly when showing Ball’s creative genius.

14. Benedict Cumberbatch as Phil Burbank in The Power of the Dog

Best Actor | One of the more controversial placements on this list — though from this point on every performance is good at the very least — Benedict Cumberbatch, on his second nomination, feels too practiced in a role as explosive as Phil Burbank. I was meant to fear him for some part of the movie, but his presence never loomed as large as his co-stars’.

13. Jesse Plemons as George Burbank in The Power of the Dog

Best Supporting Actor | “I just wanted to say how nice it is not to be alone.” Plemons has been doing consistently terrific work in film and television for years. And his slight but sensitive portrayal against some of the movie’s bigger performances is a gorgeous foil to what’s happening around him. Plus, his co-star, fellow nominee and wife Kirsten Dunst, had the sweetest reaction to his nomination.

12. Aunjanue Ellis as Oracene “Brandy” Price in King Richard

Best Supporting Actress | Aunjanue Ellis has decades of incredible work spanning TV, film, and the stage, so to see her receive her first Oscar nomination is a delight. Her performance pours out with empathy. Not a moment feels less than genuine.

11. Jessica Chastain as Tammy Faye in The Eyes of Tammy Faye

Best Actress | It’s a wonder that Jessica Chastain is only on her third nomination considering her body of work. And while The Eyes of Tammy Faye isn’t her best performance, her pure commitment to the role both physically and emotionally make it one to admire.

Jessica Chastain received her third Oscar nomination for her performance as Tammy Faye in The Eyes of Tammy Faye. — Jessica Chastain received her third Oscar nomination for her performance as Tammy Faye in *The Eyes of Tammy Faye.*

10. Denzel Washington as Macbeth in The Tragedy of Macbeth

Best Actor | With this 10th nomination, Denzel Washington has extended his record as the most-nominated black actor in Oscar history. I mean, it’s Denzel doing Shakespeare. Need I say more?

9. Kirsten Dunst as Rose Gordon in The Power of the Dog

Best Supporting Actress | The fact that this is Kirsten Dunst’s first nomination is maddening, but well-deserved for this role. She has to take her character on a full arc from beginning to end unlike the other character’s in this film and does so with sensitivity.

8. Olivia Colman as Leda Caruso in The Lost Daughter

Best Actress | Olivia Colman can do no wrong. Even with a character as difficult to like, by design, as Leda, she is able to make her feel lived-in. That depth is what keeps you hooked into the narrative even when you can’t find someone to root for.

7. Jesse Buckley as Leda Caruso in The Lost Daughter

Best Supporting Actress | Speaking of a complex lived-in character, Jesse Buckley, who somehow feels overdue for an Oscar nomination despite being relatively new, also finds those depths in the younger version of Leda Caruso. With just fits and starts of scenes to play with, she gives us a complex vision and hard truth of motherhood.

6. Kodi Smit-McPhee as Peter Gordon in The Power of the Dog

Best Supporting Actor | Just like his character in The Power of the Dog, Kodi Smit-McPhee must play the long game with his performance dropping clues along the way. In the end, every action, movement, and line delivery makes sense with the character’s ultimate motives. His performance alone is reason enough to give Jane Campion the Oscar for Best Director. I’d also say Smit-McPhee deserves the Oscar if not for one of his competitors. More on that later.

5. Andrew Garfield as Jonathan Larson in tick, tick… BOOM!

Best Actor | Andrew Garfield performs the role of Jonathan Larson like he’s on a stage. Well, he’s literally on a stage for some parts of the movie, but it’s that type of big, play-to-the-back-row performance that we don’t see much anymore. However, the heightened over-stylization of his performance is grounded in a deep understanding of a character that he, even more than writer-director Lin Manuel-Miranda, understands the weaknesses of.

4. Penélope Cruz as Janis Martínez Moreno in Parallel Mothers

Best Actress | The tone that Pedro Almodóvar strikes with his film Parallel Mothers is so distinct that it could only take an actress like Penélope Cruz to meet him exactly where he is. It’s no wonder she does her best work with him — her first Oscar nomination was for his film Volver. While the movie’s plot goes pure telenovela, both Almodóvar and Cruz have to find something authentic in Janis to deliver the film’s message. Not only does she succeed, she does so while being effortlessly entertaining and holding the screen like the star she is.

Ariana DeBose is nominated for Best Supporting Actress for her performance as Anita in West Side Story. — Ariana DeBose is nominated for Best Supporting Actress for her performance as Anita in *West Side Story*.

3. Troy Kotsur as Frank Rossi in CODA

Best Supporting Actor | Acting is reacting, and first-time nominee Troy Kotsur’s “Oscar scene” in CODA is a masterclass. With no words (signed or otherwise) he goes on a full emotional journey with his daughter (portrayed by the equally great Emilia Jones) that has the hefty job of moving every one of our characters further along on their journey of growth. However, what has been underrated is the pure joy he brings to the role of Frank, a man in a world not made for him, but that he found love in every corner of.

2. Ariana DeBose as Anita in West Side Story

Best Supporting Actress | To play a character as iconic (and Oscar-winning) as Anita in West Side Story takes nerve — and Ariana DeBose has the nerve. Rita Moreno, the original anita, plays the role with a fiesty energy that acts as a foil to the subdued energy of the central love story. DeBose’s version is just as bombastic, but with an even darker tinge to match the energy of the movie. While her signature number “America” is as impressive as ever, it’s the scenes of pure dramatic tension that set her apart.

Kristen Stewart received her first Oscar nomination for her portrayal of Diana, Princess of Wales in Spencer. — Kristen Stewart received her first Oscar nomination for her portrayal of Diana, Princess of Wales in *Spencer.*

1. Kristen Stewart as Diana, Princess of Wales in Spencer

Best Actress | There’s a fine line between performing as a real-life person and impersonating them (see further down the list), and Kristen Stewart finds the exact avenue to evoke the spirit of Diana, Princess of Wales while making her completely singular — like a servant to the story director Pablo Larraín is trying to tell. Every movement, line reading, and facial expression is studied to the point that Stewart completely disappears into the role. Spencer is a difficult movie that treads a narrow path between genres, and Stewart is right there with it every step of the way.

Karl Delossantos

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Hey, I'm Karl, founder and film critic at Smash Cut. I started Smash Cut in 2014 to share my love of movies and give a perspective I haven't yet seen represented. I'm also an editor at The New York Times, a Rotten Tomatoes-approved critic, and a member of the Online Film Critics Society.