Over the course of the 21st century, film acting hasn’t evolved significantly compared to the late 20th century, but we certainly have gotten some absolutely remarkable performances. Some of those performances have made their way to what’s essentially the highest honor a movie thespian can aspire to: an Academy Award for acting.
Throughout the past 25 (soon to be 26) installments of the Oscars, there have been exactly 100 (soon to be 104) acting winners—some of them not all that exceptional, most of them utterly unforgettable. From these great Oscar-winning performances, however, there are definitely ones that stand out above the others.
20
Da’Vine Joy Randolph for ‘The Holdovers’ (2023)
Award: Best Supporting Actress
The greatest Best Supporting Actress winner of the 2020s so far has easily been Da’Vine Joy Randolph, whose revelatory turn in The Holdovers is a big part of why this is one of the most heartwarming slice-of-life movies out there. She plays Mary, a school’s cafeteria manager who’s mourning the loss of her son in the Vietnam War.
Randolph offers a moving, tender, and absolutely heartbreaking performance, stealing the emotional heart of every scene she’s in. This is no one-note portrait of a grieving mother, however. Randolph also finds surprising bits of humor and hope in the material, creating a character that feels perfectly rounded and beautifully real.
19
Cillian Murphy for ‘Oppenheimer’ (2023)
Award: Best Actor
Before 2024, Christopher Nolan had only ever led one actor to an Oscar victory, that being Heath Ledger for The Dark Knight. After taking the Academy by storm with Oppenheimer and sweeping the 96th Oscars, however, two more joined the club: Robert Downey Jr. (whose stunning supporting performance is also worthy of note, even if not one of the greatest of the 21st century) and Cillian Murphy, the latter of whom tackled the daunting role of the father of the atomic bomb, J. Robert Oppenheimer.
It’s a transformational portrayal of a complex historical figure that Murphy approaches with poise and restrained intensity. His performance contributes greatly to making Oppenheimer one of the most perfect movies of the last 50 years, relying on soul-piercing gazes and physical cues far more than on dialogue—which he also delivers in flawless yet constantly surprising ways.
18
Javier Bardem for ‘No Country for Old Men’ (2007)
Award: Best Supporting Actor
Image via Miramax Films
In No Country for Old Men, armed only with a captive bolt pistol and one of the worst haircuts in the history of cinema, Javier Bardem plays Anton Chigurh, a hitman so terrifying that he almost works as an embodiment of Death itself. All in all, this is one of the 21st-century Best Picture winners that have aged the best, and that’s in no small measure thanks to how great Bardem is in it.
Psychological studies have found Bardem’s performance to be one of the most realistic depictions of a psychopath in film history. He’s a horrifying force of nature here, showing just how effective parsimonious restraint can be in making a neo-Western villain as chilling as any monster from any horror film in history.
17
Cate Blanchett for ‘The Aviator’ (2004)
Award: Best Supporting Actress
Only two female actors from Martin Scorsese movies have managed to win an Oscar: Ellen Burstyn for Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore in 1975, and Cate Blanchett for The Aviator three decades later. In this absolutely exceptional biopic, Blanchett plays the legendary Hollywood icon Katharine Hepburn, who once shared an intense romance with the film’s main character, aviator and film producer Howard Hughes (Leonardo DiCaprio).
Blanchett immediately vanishes into the role. From the moment she first appears on screen, you don’t see Cate Blanchett, you see Katharine Hepburn. But this isn’t just an impression: Aside from being eerily accurate, Blanchett’s portrayal of Hepburn shows tremendous depth and emotional range, easily making it one of the actress’ best performances. To date, it’s the only time an actor has won an Oscar for playing another Oscar-winning actor.
16
Ke Huy Quan for ‘Everything Everywhere All At Once’ (2022)
Award: Best Supporting Actor
The Daniels‘ Everything Everywhere All At Once is one of the most surprising Academy darlings in recent memory, an over-the-top indie sci-fi dramedy that somehow made its way to a whopping seven Oscar wins. One of those wins came for Ke Huy Quan, who plays Waymond, the unassuming but kindhearted husband of the main character, Evelyn (Michelle Yeoh, who also won an Oscar for the film).
This is one of the most perfect movies of the last 20 years, the perfect comeback vehicle for an actor who had been away from the Hollywood spotlight since the ’90s. Quan takes full advantage of his experience as a stunt coordinator and martial artist with a highly physical, action-oriented performance; but he also gets plenty of chances to show his range, often serving as the movie’s beating heart and vibrant soul.
15
Marion Cotillard for ‘La Vie en Rose’ (2007)
Award: Best Actress
Image via Icon Film Distribution
The biopic genre is typically the way to go for actors who really want to win an Oscar, and La Vie en Rose is one of the many examples of that principle in action. In it, Marion Cotillard plays iconic French singer Édith Piaf, and we follow her through a life characterized by both success and tragedy. For this role, Cotillard became the third actor ever to win an acting Oscar for a foreign-language film.
It’s one of the best acting Oscar wins of the 2000s, wherein Cotillard completely transforms into Piaf physically, emotionally, and behaviorally. It’s a raw, fiery performance full of fearless vulnerability, as well as carefully constructed little details that only make Cotillard’s acting feel all the more genuine.
14
Lupita Nyong’o for ’12 Years a Slave’ (2013)
Award: Best Supporting Actress
Steve McQueen‘s 12 Years a Slave is one of the most gut-wrenching films of the 21st century, an incredibly brutal and emotionally intense biopic that nevertheless made its way to three Oscar wins, including Best Picture. Another one of those wins was for Lupita Nyong’o, who plays Patsy, an enslaved woman working on a Louisiana cotton plantation.
It’s a soul-scarring, thoroughly tragic, larger-than-life powerhouse performance, which only makes it more impressive that this was Nyong’o’s debut feature film role. It’s an incredibly immersive, consistently chill-inducing performance. Nyong’o breaks the audience’s heart with ease, but also doesn’t allow her performance to become sensationalistic or one-note. She sees Patsy as a tragic human being first and foremost, and that’s what makes her portrayal of her so effective.
13
Christoph Waltz for ‘Inglourious Basterds’ (2009)
Award: Best Supporting Actor
Quentin Tarantino, one of the most celebrated filmmakers working today, has mentioned that he nearly decided to abandon Inglourious Basterds purely because he couldn’t find the right actor for the ruthless SS Colonel Hans Landa, a role he deemed “unplayable.” That’s when Christoph Waltz auditioned, and suddenly, Tarantino had found a performer who felt like he had been born to play this incredibly tricky role.
Inglourious Basterds is one of the most perfect war thrillers of all time, but Tarantino’s intuition was right: The film wouldn’t have worked half as well as it does with any other actor playing Landa. Waltz is beyond chilling in the role, seamlessly blending charm, intelligence, and imposing sadism to create an antagonist whose presence looms over the entire movie, even when he’s not there.
12
Cate Blanchett for ‘Blue Jasmine’ (2013)
Award: Best Actress
Woody Allen, the biggest winner in the history of the Best Screenplay Oscars, has won three. He has also led six actors to acting Oscars, the latest of which is Cate Blanchett for Blue Jasmine. She plays the title role of Jasmine French, a former New York socialite who experiences a severe mental breakdown after her marriage to a wealthy fraudster collapses.
If there were any actresses worthy of becoming two-time Oscar winners in the 21st century, Blanchett was definitely very near the top of the list. Her performance as Jasmine swept the 2013-14 awards race, and for good reason. It’s a psychologically layered piece of acting where Blanchett portrays her character’s downward spiral with terrifying potency and accuracy, without ever putting the film’s bits of dark comedy in jeopardy.
11
Emma Stone for ‘Poor Things’ (2023)
Award: Best Actress
Having started with the 2018 period dark comedy The Favourite, filmmaker Yorgos Lanthimos and star Emma Stone have become one of the most iconic actor-director duos of modern times. The pinnacle of the pair’s work came in the form of Poor Things, where Stone plays Bella Baxter, a curious and uninhibited woman who was the product of a scientific experiment by Dr. Godwin Baxter (Willem Dafoe).
It’s one of the greatest Best Actress wins of the last 25 years, easily. For one, Stone’s work in Poor Things is hilarious, making this feminist twist on Frankenstein an irresistibly entertaining spectacle. On top of that, her performance is both physically committed and emotionally vulnerable, making Bella’s gradual transformation one of the most fascinating character arcs of any Oscar-nominated film of the 2020s.