120 Nominated Performances, Ranked. Who's Next?
Wednesday, August 17, 2016 at 1:15PM As you will undoubtedly understand, I'm not up to speed at the moment. But I find a weird comfort in list-making and cine-dreaming, wondering what our next batch of Oscar contenders will look like. Will it be a great vintage or a weak one? Or, more usual, a weird combo of both. It's far too early to tell though we're hopeful. As I was wandering aimlessly around the web this morning I found this very enjoyable video from Ali Benz ranking all Oscar acting nominees this decade. Like a moving scrapbook of Oscar's classes for the past six years (2010-2015). Some things about the order make me so crazy but that is the joy and discussability of list-making.
Here's the video and after the jump I'll rank them all myself. Busywork is good for me today.
120 Oscar-nominated Performances of the Decade - RANKED - from Ali Benzekri on Vimeo.
ALL THE OSCAR NOMINATED PERFORMANCES RANKED (2010-2015)
by Nathaniel
New predictions here | Asterisks indicate Oscar winners
- Cate Blanchett, Blue Jasmine *
- Cate Blanchett, Carol
- Charlotte Rampling, 45 Years
- Marion Cotillard, Two Days One Night
- Christopher Plummer, Beginners *
- Jacki Weaver, Animal Kingdom
- Viola Davis, The Help
- Daniel Day Lewis, Lincoln *
- Edward Norton, Birdman
- Emmanuelle Riva, Amour
- Michael Keaton, Birdman
- Christian Bale, The Fighter *
- Nicole Kidman, Rabbit Hole
- Annette Bening, The Kids Are All Right
- Rooney Mara, Carol
- Melissa Leo, The Fighter *
- Anne Hathaway, Les Miserables *
- Saoirse Ronan, Brooklyn
- Mark Ruffalo, Foxcatcher
- Brad Pitt, Moneyball
- Jean DuJardin, The Artist *
- Lupita Nyong'o, 12 Years a Slave *
🔺the awesomeness...
...just love em 🔻 - Jesse Eisenberg, The Social Network
- Chiwetel Ejiofor, 12 Years a Slave
- Patricia Arquette, Boyhood *
- Mark Ruffalo, The Kids Are All Right
- Amy Adams, The Fighter
- Joaquin Phoenix, The Master
- Brie Larson, Room *
- Sally Field, Lincoln
- Reese Witherspoon, Wild
- Bruce Dern, Nebraska
- Michelle Williams, Blue Valentine
- Jessica Chastain, The Help
- Helen Hunt, The Sessions
- Tommy Lee Jones, Lincoln
- Natalie Portman, Black Swan *
- Michael Fassbender, Steve Jobs
- John Hawkes, Winter's Bone
- Ethan Hawke, Boyhood
- Melissa McCarthy, Bridesmaids
- Michael Fassbender, 12 Years a Slave
- Keira Knightley, The Imitation Game
worthy fine choices. They brought it - Matt Damon, The Martian
- Kate Winslet, Steve Jobs
- Julianne Moore, Still Alice *
- Hugh Jackman, Les Miserables
- Rosamund Pike, Gone Girl
- James Franco, 127 Hours
- Janet McTeer, Albert Nobbs
- Matthew McConaughey, Dallas Buyer's Club *
- Jessica Chastain, Zero Dark Thirty
- Bradley Cooper, American Hustle
- Sylvester Stallone, Creed
- Leonardo DiCaprio, The Wolf of Wall Street
- Denzel Washington, Flight
- Demian Bichir, A Better Life
- Sally Hawkins, Blue Jasmine
- Amy Adams, American Hustle
- Eddie Redmayne, The Theory of Everything *
- Mark Rylance, Bridge of Spies *
- Alicia Vikander, The Danish Girl *
- Jennifer Lawrence, Winter's Bone
- Bradley Cooper, Silver Linings Playbook
- Judi Dench, Philomena
- Geoffrey Rush, The King's Speech
- Jeremy Renner, The Town
i get it even if I wouldn't necessarily have gone there... - Meryl Streep, The Iron Lady *
- Jennifer Lawrence, American Hustle
- Jennifer Lawrence, Joy
- Naomi Watts, The Impossible
- Bradley Cooper, American Sniper
- Rooney Mara, The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo
- Quvenzhane Wallis, Beasts of the Southern Wild
- Meryl Streep, August: Osage County
- Gary Oldman, Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy
- Leonardo DiCaprio, The Revenant *
- Colin Firth, The King's Speech *
- Philip Seymour Hoffman, The Master
- Octavia Spencer, The Help *
- Benedict Cumberbatch, The Imitation Game
- Michelle Williams, My Week With Marilyn
- Jeff Bridges, True Grit
- Felicity Jones, The Theory of Everything
- JK Simmons, Whiplash *
- Javier Bardem, Biutiful
- Sandra Bullock, Gravity
- June Squibb, Nebraska
- Jared Leto, Dallas Buyer's Club *
things that make you go "hmmmm..." - Julia Roberts, August Osage County
- Helena Bonham Carter, The King's Speech
- Rachel McAdams, Spotlight
- Tom Hardy, The Revenant
- Robert De Niro, Silver Linings Playbook
- Christian Bale, The Big Short
- Laura Dern, Wild
- Emma Stone, Birdman
- Kenneth Branagh, My Week With Marilyn
- Jennifer Lawrence, Silver Linings Playbook *
- Meryl Streep, Into the Woods
- Max Von Sydow, Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close
- Barkhad Abdi, Captain Phillips
- Nick Nolte, Warrior
Was this really necessary??? - Jonah Hall, Moneyball
- Jacki Weaver, Silver Linings Playbook
- Amy Adams, The Master
- Berenice Bejo, The Artist
- Alan Arkin, Argo
- Christian Bale, American Hustle
- Jonah Hill, Wolf of Wall Street
- George Clooney, The Descendants
- Hailee Steinfeld, True Grit
- Steve Carell, Foxcatcher
- Jennifer Jason Leigh, The Hateful Eight
- Christoph Waltz, Django Unchained *
- Glenn Close, Albert Nobbs
- Bryan Cranston, Trumbo
- Robert Duvall, The Judge
- Eddie Redmayne, The Danish Girl
- Mark Ruffalo, Spotlight
Most Nominated This Decade
Four nominations: Jennifer Lawrence (nominated for 66% of this decade's Oscar nights); Three nominations: Amy Adams, Bradley Cooper, Mark Ruffalo, Meryl Streep and Christian Bale (nominated for 50% of this decade's Oscar nights)
Reader Comments (83)
haha what a great post!
(1) Love that you have Cotillard, Weaver and Blanchett x2 in the top 10
(2) (A) Edward Norton at #9 are you crazy?!; (B) Day-Lewis at #8 - i don't get the love for this performance at all; (C) Bening at #14 - she's good but not THAT good.
(3) Love that Rooney is so high for Carol. Well deserved.
(4) I suppose I should get around to watching Foxcatcher for Ruffalo's sake, huh?
(5) You sure liked Ronan a lot more than I thought you did
(6) Chastain in The Help > Zero Dark Thirty. Blasphemy.
(7) I enjoy the hmmm category placement for Stone in Birdman
Also, Eisenberg, Williams, Portman and Chastain (SDT) are painfully low and would all easily make my top tier.
Just need to shout out support to Gary Oldman in Tinker Tailer Solider Spy and Rooney Mara in The Girl with a Dragon Tattoo and are the lowest ranked people that should be in the awesomeness camp.
They are undeniably brilliant in those films.
"I'm with you, JLaw is a talented actress & big box office but let's retire this term "best of generation". Other actresses close to her age are enormously talented."
I don't know if it bothers me that. I definitely wouldn't say it as actresses in their 20s still have a lot to prove IMO, so others out there I'm sure have more potential. With that said, if you are looking at proven actresses in their 20's (actresses with at least 3 very good performances), Lawrence would definitely be near the top of that list as of now.
BUT I doubt we will be saying the same thing 10 years from now. I imagine she'll have a lot more proven competition in her "age group" at that point.
Both are great performances but for me, Cate in Carol >>>>>> Cate in Blue Jasmine
When it comes to Lawrence's nominations, I'd probably rank them as:
1. Winter's Bone
2. Joy
3. Silver Linings Playbook
4. American Hustle
It's all subjective but Sally Field is too low and Jennifer Lawrence and Bradlwy Cooper are too high?
This is a goddamn massive list. And I CANNOT see that video ugh. Vimeo is my nemesis.
Finally, some sense indeed!
My own list, not 120 tho:
1. Cate Blanchett - Blue Jasmine
2. Joaquin Phoenix - The Master
3. Charlotte Rampling - 45 Years
4. Natalie Portman - Black Swan
5. Rosamund Pike - Gone Girl
6. CAROL's ladies, Blanchett and Mara
7. Leonardo DiCaprio - The Wolf of Wall Street
8. Jessica Chastain - Zero Dark Thirty
9. Nicole Kidman - Rabbit Hole
10. Jennifer Lawrence - Silver Linings Playbook
Sandra Bullock Blind Side? Come on!
Maybe people embrace Jennifer as their new hero? Some of these low ones did seem right, and number one is definitely Riva
You ranked Barkhad Adbi so low :( He easily deserved the Oscar in my view.
where is Charlize Theron? @@
Two Jonah Hills in the bottom is incredibly appropriate.
I do like that the top is so female centric, but it just goes to show they are *just* as bad at finding exceptional male performers to nominate each year even though it's always a "weak year for actresses". The male side is often way more obvious and disappointing. In part because movies are so often made by and about men so it's harder for idiosyncratic choices (like Damien Bashir or Javier Bardem in Biutiful) to sneak through.
I'm curious though because I can't remember... does Julia Roberts make you go hmmm because it's so obviously a lead performance, or did you just not care for her that much.
/3rtful - I'd wager that many parts of you have died over the years.
"Whatever Yavor." This really cracked me up. (People never fail to respond this way to inconvenient facts.)
My Top 10 (not in order)(includes only five winners and three David O. Russells):
Daniel Day Lewis, Lincoln
Cate Blanchett, Blue Jasmine
Michael Keaton, Birdman
Christian Bale, The Fighter
Melissa Leo, The Fighter
Christian Bale, American Hustle
Christian Bale, The Big Short
JK Simmons, Whiplash
Judi Dench, Philomena
Michael Fassbender, 12 Years a Slave
My Bottom 10 (not in order)(includes four winners and five David O. Russells):
Christoph Waltz, Django Unchained
Alan Arkin, Argo
Jacki Weaver, Silver Linings Playbook
Julia Roberts, August Osage County
Patricia Arquette, Boyhood
Matthew McConaughey, Dallas Buyers Club
Bradley Cooper, American Hustle
Jennifer Lawrence, Silver Linings Playbook
Jennifer Lawrence, Joy
Jennifer Lawrence, American Hustle
Glad to see i wasn't the only one who felt Ruffalo was awful in Spotlight.
I see from TFE commenters that Jennifer Lawrence is the "new" Hillary Swank.
So that's sorted, as the Brits say.
I love it when we all think differently seems most people are set on Blanchett though,I think Lincoln is not a good performance by Day Lewis,I can see the cogs.
Plus Lupita shows her lack of experience by doing all her big scenes too loud and all her quiet scenes too quiet.
I LOVE Glenn Close in Albert Nobbs, She quietly and deeply moved me. She would be in my top ten.
Blanchett is first with Carol, then Julianne Moore with Still Alice, Cotillard with Two Days One Night and Rooney for Carol. I would put higher Michelle Williams for Blue Valentine, again with Gosling if he would have been nominated.
I appreciate You Still rank so high Kidman and Bening.
In My top ten I would put also Fassbender for Shame and Jane Eyre together with Wasikowska, And also Weisz for The Deep Blue Sea and, again, Cotillard for Rust and Bone. So frustrating no one of them got the nomination.
Yes everyone saying "where is _____?" Everyone who was nominated is included . Trust that my list of 120 with non nominees would be much different and I would love all of them!
Great post! My top 5 nominated women and men (in no particular order):
Cate Blanchett, Blue Jasmine
Marion Cotillard, Two Days One Night
Emmanuelle Riva, Amour
Saoirse Ronan, Brooklyn
Kate Winslet, Steve Jobs /Michael Fassbender, Steve Jobs
Mark Ruffalo, The Kids Are All Right
James Franco, 127 Hours
Leonardo DiCaprio, The Wolf of Wall Street
Bradley Cooper, Silver Linings Playbook
Geoffrey Rush, The King's Speech
I don't quite understand the immense love for Blanchett's work in 'Blue Jasmine.' It was certainly impactful, but I echo Nick Davis's thoughts when he wrote that the character makes less and less sense the more you think about her. I can definitely get behind the high ranking of her work in 'Carol,' though.
Michelle Williams is my #1 for her brilliant work in 'Blue Valentine.'
Jennifer Lawrence impressed me with her natural, affecting work in 'Winter's Bone,' but I've come to think of her as a mediocre-to-poor actress since then. Any competent performer could have done what she did in 'Silver Linings Playbook,' and I thought she was terrible in 'American Hustle' (she should have been called out more for her distractingly inconsistent accent). 'Joy' was a waste of a nomination, and she's quite bad in 'Serena' and 'X-Men.'
Her technical limitations are becoming more and more apparent to me. I think she should consider taking some acting lessons, but I can understand why she wouldn't be motivated to challenge herself when the public, the media, and the Academy shower her with accolades nearly every time she shows up for work.
Ugh Jennifer Lawrence. She was good to great in Winter's Bone, hilarious regardless of how ludicrous her character is in American Hustle, and solid in Joy. In Silver Linings Playbook, she was just awful: lacks any sort of nuance and differentiation between her extreme emotional poles, and her outbursts all feel like rehearsals without proper fine-tuning.
Fine list overall.
There was a moment where Meryl and Amy Adams are near each other near the top, and that seemed really right.
Agree that some of these (Lawrence, Cooper) will go down over time.
Whatever Lola wants Lola Gets... thank you Lola for the comment I wanted to make ...
Riva in Amour is so incurably overrated, especially when you compare her to her co-star. She did nothing wrong but it was not deep and just physical transformation.
I do not know how Cooper was over Lawrence for slp, I liked him but it was not that great performance in the end.
@ Mike "Nick Davis's thoughts when he wrote that the character makes less and less sense the more you think about her."
Are we talking about the same Nick who fell head over heels for Tilda Swinton in Julia and couldn't shut up about it?
Because Jasmine French actually makes a lot of sense if compared to Julia and I guess someone might be revealing their undeniable biases right there.
God so much hate for Quvenzhane Wallis' prodigal performance. It's frustrated me since her nomination how she gets zero credit for the work she did in BOTSW. Maybe not the most technically amazing performance but the energy, commitment, and complexity of a character for a SIX year old...it's just so messed up how people throw that all away. The fact that a NINE year old black girl got nominated for an Oscar in a LEADING category in her debut film is just...almost miraculous.
Taking a page from Paul Outlaw's book...
My Top 10:
1) Cate Blanchett, Carol
2) Emmanuelle Riva, Amour
3) Marion Cotillard, Two Days, One Night
4) Viola Davis, The Help
5) Michelle Williams, Blue Valentine
6) Amy Adams, American Hustle
7) Chiwetel Ejiofor, 12 Years A Slave
8) Jacki Weaver, Animal Kingdom
9) Charlotte Rampling, 45 Years
10) Leonardo DiCaprio, The Wolf of Wall Street
My Bottom 10:
1) Eddie Redmayne, The Danish Girl
2) June Squibb, Nebraska
3) Christian Bale, The Big Short
4) Amy Adams, The Master
5) Alan Arkin, Argo
6) Benedict Cumberbatch, The Imitation Game
7) Meryl Streep, The Iron Lady
8) Eddie Redmayne, The Theory of Everything
9) Jonah Hill, The Wolf of Wall Street
I enjoyed reading your list and happy to note that I've seen a good amount of these performances, and that most I haven't seen was because I wasn't attracted to the films themselves. I think most of the lower-ranked choices here would be on my bottom list as well; we can all agree that the Academy makes some very questionable choices at times.
my top 12:
1. Cate Blanchett, Carol
2. Cate Blanchett, Blue Jasmine
3. Joaquin Phoenix, The Master
4. Matthew McConaughey, Dallas Buyers Club
5. Daniel Day-Lewis, Lincoln
6. Marion Cotillard, Two Days, One Night
7. Christian Bale, The Fighter
8. Nicole Kidman, Rabbit Hole
9. Lupita Nyong'o, 12 Years a Slave
10. Rooney Mara, Carol
11. Charlotte Rampling, 45 Years
12. Christopher Plummer, Beginners
Cate Blanchett in Blue Jasmine is definitely the best of the decade, so far! I knew after watching the film in the theater that it was going to be one of the best film performances of all time.
Nate's Winners:
2010 - Eisenberg, Kidman, Bale*, Weaver
2011 - Pitt, Davis, Plummer*, Chastain
2012 - Day-Lewis*, Riva, Jones, Hathaway*
2013 - Ejiofor, Blanchett*, Fassbender, Nyong'o*
2014 - Keaton, Cotillard, Norton, Arquette*
2015 - Fassbender, Blanchett, Stallone, Mara
Most Heartbreaking Nate Loss: Rampling, 2015
2-Time Nate Winners in the Decade: Blanchett, Fassbender
Interesting Nate-Winning Castmates: Davis/Chastain, Day-Lewis/Jones, and, Ejiofor/Fassbender/Nyong'o
The Iron Lady and August: Osage County are so divisive. It's hard not to think of how those movies might have turned out with stronger directors that really understood how to make the material into something great (Mike Nichols?) since the actors certainly gave it their all.
I dunno how I feel about Cate. I am perhaps in the Quentin Tarantino meh camp on her. Very competent but does not draw me in.