Oscars 2023: The 10 best performances of the year
The greatest actors of all time have graced the stage at the Academy Awards to claim a shiny Oscar statuette, with Robert De Niro, Jack Nicholson and Meryl Streep each having seized multiple awards over the past decades. Whilst the Academy so often gets the ‘Best Picture’ picks wrong, they often get the acting awards pretty on point, rightfully showering praise on the biggest and best contemporary stars.
This year is no different, with the Academy largely getting its lineup of leading and supporting actors pretty bang on, aside from a few very obvious omissions. Usually only praising the actors that appear in the highest number of nominated movies, this year sees a number of diverse stars get the nod, including Andrea Riseborough, Hong Chau and Ke Huy Quan, among many others.
Still, perhaps the biggest surprise is the vast number of Irish actors who are nominated at the awards, including Paul Mescal, Colin Farrell, Brendan Gleeson, Kerry Condon and Barry Keoghan. Though each of these nods is deserved, there were a few big snubs from the lineup, which we’ve compiled together with the hottest Oscar picks in our list of the ten best performances of the year.
Take a look at our list of the finest performances of 2023 below, including movies from the likes of Charlotte Wells, Steven Spielberg and Martin McDonagh.
The 10 best performances of the year
10. Brendan Fraser – The Whale (Darren Aronofsky)
Much hype has been made about Brendan Fraser’s performance in Darren Aronofsky’s The Whale, and the attention is well deserved, morphing into the broken lead character of the devastating drama. Playing the role of Charlie, a reclusive, morbidly obese English teacher trying to reconnect with his daughter whilst reconciling with his own life, Fraser fully dedicates himself to the challenging role.
Leading the film with a staggering performance, Aronofsky’s film is nothing without Fraser, who has since won an award for ‘Best Leading Actor’ at the Screen Actors Guild Awards.
9. Bill Nighy – Living (Oliver Hermanus)
Who would have thought a remake of Akira Kurosawa’s iconic 1952 movie Ikiru could be so great? Starring Bill Nighy, the British adaptation of the Japanese tale is helmed by the South African filmmaker Oliver Hermanus and follows the story of a civil servant in 1950s London who decides to start living life after receiving a bleak health diagnosis. Having to fill the rather large boots of Takashi Shimura, Nighy does a surprisingly excellent job.
Channelling his good humour and affable charm, Nighy gives the best performance of his entire career and has been rewarded by the Academy. As a result, he received a nomination for ‘Best Leading Actor’.
8. Brian Tyree Henry – Causeway (Lila Neugebauer)
American actor Brian Tyree Henry enjoyed a stellar year in 2022, appearing in the Brad Pitt-led action movie Bullet Train and Netflix’s Big Mouth before his performance in Lila Neugebauer’s Causeway attracted significant media attention. Appearing alongside Jennifer Lawrence, Henry stars as James, an auto mechanic with severe mental trauma, who helps to rehabilitate a young woman with PTSD.
Delivering a tender, complex performance, many were delighted to see Brian Tyree Henry’s name in lights when the Academy handed him a nomination for ‘Best Supporting Actor’, becoming an outside bet to win the award.
7. Michelle Williams – The Fabelmans (Steven Spielberg)
Nominated for five Academy Awards without a win, Michelle Williams may be one of the unluckiest actors working in the industry, especially as her performance in 2017’s Manchester by the Sea was worthy of endless praise. This year, she’s nominated for Steven Spielberg’s The Fabelmans, where she plays Mitzi Fabelman, the troubled mother of the director’s own biopic that tells the story of his loving upbringing.
The emotional heart of the fragile tale of burgeoning adolescence, Williams’ performance creates much of the drama in Spielberg’s movie, excellently bouncing off co-stars Gabriel LaBelle, Paul Dano and Seth Rogen.
6. Anamaria Vartolomei – Happening (Audrey Diwan)
Audrey Diwan’s French movie Happening remarkably failed to gain any sort of Oscars attention, despite being nominated for a BAFTA and several other international awards. Adapted from Annie Ernaux’s novel of the same name, Happening tells the story of a young woman’s experience going through an abortion in 1960s France when the divisive practice was still illegal.
Leading the film is Anamaria Vartolomei as Anne Duchesne, giving a sensationally tender performance that totally commands the story, with each scene gravitating towards her every word and glare.
5. Mia Goth – Pearl (Ti West)
Mia Goth has been totally ignored by almost each and every awards show, despite dominating the horror genre in 2022 with breathtaking performances in Ti West’s X and its prequel Pearl. Whilst she magnetises the viewer’s attention in X, it is in Pearl that Goth truly proves herself as a talent for the future, leading the film almost entirely on her own with her complex and layered performance as the psychotic title character.
If this wasn’t enough, Goth is soon set to star in the third movie in Ti West’s trilogy, MaXXXine, as well as the Brandon Cronenberg flick Infinity Pool. If 2022 wasn’t her year for the Oscars, hopefully, 2023 will be.
4. Michelle Yeoh – Everything Everywhere All At Once (Daniel Kwan, Daniel Scheinert)
Gaining significant critical and commercial acclaim in 2022, the wild A24 sci-fi flick Everything Everywhere All At Once is now a major frontrunner at the 95th Academy Awards. Led by Michelle Yeoh, the movie tells the story of a middle-aged Chinese immigrant who becomes tangled in a multi-dimensional story that drags in her husband, Waymond (Ke Huy Quan), and daughter, Joy (Stephanie Hsu).
Each of the main cast members is nominated for a major Academy Award, but it’s Yeoh who deserves to win the most, leading the film with tremendous enthusiasm and acting vigour.
3. Colin Farrell, The Banshees of Inisherin (Martin McDonagh)
Martin McDonagh’s moving drama The Banshees of Inisherin is led almost entirely by its staggering ensemble cast that includes the likes of Barry Keoghan, Brendan Gleeson and Kerry Condon. Leading the movie, however, is Colin Farrell, who plays a man living on a remote Irish island whose relationship with his best friend suddenly ends, forcing the two of them to consider their place in life.
A complex tale of human morality, set in the backdrop of the Irish civil war, Farrell is outstanding in the leading role, bringing an emotional intensity that exudes sympathy.
2. Cate Blanchett – Tár (Todd Field)
Todd Field has created a modern Kubrickian drama with Tár, a story that follows a fictional composer who is known as the greatest in her field. Struggling to fuse her troubled personality with the ideals of contemporary society, the film tracks the composer’s steady fall from grace, with Cate Blanchett leading the movie as the title character with a fierce dedication to her enigmatic role.
Despite her being a troubled character, Blanchett still manages to radiate her charm and make Lydia Tár an enjoyable figure to be around, as well as one you’re not entirely sure you can trust.
1. Paul Mescal – Aftersun (Charlotte Wells)
One of the best leading male performances of modern cinema, Paul Mescal is stunning as Calum, a troubled young father, in Charlotte Wells’ modern masterpiece. Alongside Frankie Corio, who plays his daughter Sophie, Mescal leads the movie and fuels much of the emotional heart with his tender portrayal of a broken man stuck between youth and adolescence who can’t reconcile with the path of his own life.
Complex, charming and completely captivating, Mescal’s performance is what brings Wells’ movie together, embodying the enigma at the heart of the emotionally-wrought drama that swells with 21st-century nostalgia.
