Ranking Every 2023 Oscar-Nominated Acting Performance From Best To Worst

As Abby Lee would say, "On the bottom, Ana." Someone has to be last, and unfortunately this year it is Ben Affleck's ex. While everyone was up in arms about To Leslie's guerrilla campaign to get Andrea Riseborough into the Best Actress race, and the eventual snubs of Viola Davis for The Woman King and Danielle Deadwyler for Till, they should have been focusing their attention on Blonde. The spectacularly long, incredibly miserable, and excessively directed film from Andrew Dominik was a dumpster fire from start to finish. Switching between black-and-white and color, and using a variety of aspect ratios for no discernible reason, the film is a confused, pointless, leering examination of Marilyn Monroe. De Armas, who takes the titular role, seemingly went through hell while making the movie, and so we must give her props for that, but her odd breathy voice with a Cuban accent isn't really a strong impression of Monroe and gets old after passing the two-hour mark. There is a strong resemblance between the two, but Best Actress was the strongest acting category this year, and de Armas wasn't in the top ten. 

While I am delighted that Jamie Lee Curtis FINALLY landed her first Oscar nomination after a long, spectacular career, and while I am a devout proselytizer for Everything Everywhere All at Once, Curtis's performance is much less integral to the film than most of the other performances on this list. She does what is asked of her magnificently, playing various villains across dimensions with her incredible comedic timing, but it's just a small role and her competitors are given more to do. 

Gleeson, who like Curtis, is one of four nominees from his film, similarly delivers a solid performance but is overshadowed by three much showier turns. Banshees is a movie largely about Gleeson's absence, and so his role is often that of a man ignoring his friend, leaving a bar, and trying to stay isolated. Colin Farrell wouldn't be as great as he is without Gleeson's hard work, but he's given less to do. 

Judd Hirsch, who is only garnering a second nomination in his storied career, has perhaps the least screen time of all 20 nominees. He plays Michelle Williams's uncle, who arrives and imparts wisdom about family and art to Sammy Fabelman before departing. He delivers one of the strongest scenes in the film, and I love it when a true supporting performance gets nominated since the category has been filling up with co-leads in recent years, but you can't really compare the work he does with one of the much more demanding performances to come on this list. 

Much has been said about Elvis and Austin Butler's performance in it, and I'm sure we will be immersed in this dialogue for years to come. Butler's transformation into Elvis Presley was all-consuming, so much so that two years later, he's still inexplicably speaking in Elvis's voice. While the mannerisms and voice are a dead ringer for the King of Rock n Roll, Presley, in the film, is viewed more like a trophy to be admired than a living breathing person. He's mostly passed around from one supporting character to the next, and aside from some dance moves and short lines, he doesn't do all that much. I'd say that Butler's Elvis is a great impression, but not that interesting as a character. I'm sure many will disagree, but in a year with SO MANY ridiculously good performances, this one left me wanting more. 

Never heard of To Leslie? Not surprising at all, as the film was barely released in theaters and Riseborough was nominated on the back of a blitzkrieg campaign during the Oscar nomination voting window. Riseborough, in general, is a jaw-droppingly great actor, and I'm glad she is now Oscar-nominated. Mandy, The Death of Stalin, and Battle of the Sexes all feature strong performances, and if de Armas hadn't also been nominated for Best Actress, I'd be more excited to see Riseborough in the hunt. That being said, after the nominations, I watched To Leslie, and it is the latest in a string of desperate substance abuse films along with Hillbilly Elegy and Four Good Days. This is a BIG performance and Riseborough is given a lot to do, but it's a performance we've seen numerous times before, and I wish that Riseborough's Oscar nomination was for a more nuanced interesting role. 

Michelle Williams is fantastic in The Fabelmans. We're now splitting hairs in the ranking because all the performances left are objectively great. While Williams is always wonderful, and, unsurprisingly, is here as a stand-in for Steven Spielberg's mother, she has faded to the background of my mind since watching the film. I think the true star of The Fabelmans is Spielberg's filmmaking, and everything else pales in comparison. I will also forever be baffled by the decision to move Williams from supporting to lead, a choice that almost certainly cost her an Oscar as she transferred from a relatively quiet category to one of the strongest in years. She's honestly a bit lucky to have been nominated. 

Like Butler's performance in Elvis, Fraser's in The Whale has its ardent fans and equally ardent detractors. While I don't like the movie, and especially hate the script, and in general, am not a fan of the fat suit, I can see why it was necessary given the lack of 400+ pound actors in Hollywood. Fraser, who has been underrated his entire career, has the comeback narrative of the century and puts his whole heart and soul into the role with an earnestness that's almost hard to watch at points. Perhaps I should be giving him more kudos for making a cringy script so believable, but ultimately, I think the melodrama of it all made me knock it down a few slots. 

Barry Keoghan, like Andrea Riseborough, is one of those actors who has been floating around Hollywood for years. He pops up in all kinds of films and delivers incredible work in every single one of them. The Killing of a Sacred Deer. The Green Knight. Dunkirk. Need I go on? Less famous than his Banshees costars, he was not initially seen as a viable Oscar threat, but as the film became more and more beloved, his performance started garnering nominations based solely on how strong his performance is. Playing Dominic, a somewhat simple villager and abuse victim, Keoghan takes a potentially one-note or caricature-ish role and breathes deep humanity into it. This is the kind of role that would be forgotten in the hands of a weaker actor, but Keoghan makes it indelible.  

I don't want to say that receiving an Oscar nomination is ever easy, but if you're an actor in one of the buzzy Best Picture frontrunners (Banshees, The Fabelmans, TÁR, Everything Everywhere), you know that at the very least the Academy will be watching your movie. When an actor breaks into the race from a much smaller indie film, like the quiet PTSD meditation, Causeway, it is often based solely on the strength of the performance. Brian Tyree Henry is another actor who has been turning out solidly great work for a decade and was due for his first nomination. As the auto-mechanic who befriends Jennifer Lawrence, he is charming, funny, and gruff all at the same time. The first of hopefully many more nominations to come. 

The best part about The Whale is far and away Hong Chau. Playing the best friend/nurse/sister-in-law-ish of Fraser's Charlie, she's the one most emotionally and physically impacted during his final days. Chau's nomination for The Whale comes the same year she garnered raves for performances in The Menu and Showing Up, so her star is on the rise. I'm also on the lookout every year for the "Oscar scene" that an actor would use in their Oscar clip reel, and the scene where Hong Chau breaks down on the porch is the best Oscar scene of the year. 

Of this year's incredible 16 first-time nominees, Nighy joins Jamie Lee Curtis and Brendan Gleeson in the "I can't believe they've never been nominated before" camp. In the English adaptation of the Japanese classic, Ikiru, Nighy plays a British bureaucrat, who, after a life of stern paper-pushing receives notice that he's dying and tries to take a new lease on life. Nighy's tightlipped performance is one that does not contain the severe emotional swings of something like To Leslie, but rather relies on extreme subtleties in a very British way. Nighy's scenes with Aimee Lou Wood are especially brilliant, and I was beyond thrilled when his name popped up on nomination morning. 

Circling back to Banshees for the third time on this list, the emotional core of the film is the relationship between the Colin Farrell/Kerry Condon brother/sister duo. Condon's Siobhan is the brains of Inisherin, and throughout the first half of the film, we see her as the voice of reason while the three men continue to go off the rails. The brilliance of the performance, however, arrives in the second hour as we see the toll that being a great mind trapped on a tiny island is taking. Condon's portrayal of Siobhan's decision to leave, her mourning the life she knows, and her nervous anticipation of the future will stick in my mind for a long time. Also, not her doing, but I LOVE her coat. 

The presumed frontrunner for this year's Best Actress race is Angela Bassett, who is the first acting nominee (and would be the first winner) from the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Grappling with the deaths of her husband and son, Bassett's Queen Ramonda has the weight of Wakanda on her shoulders. The strength, fury, might, and sadness that she injects into the role is something that the often CGI-laden MCU hasn't seen before. While technically a supporting character, she steals the whole damn movie away from her costars as she sweeps through scenes in some of this year's best costumes. Basset, who has only been nominated once before, certainly deserves the win. 

And yet, while Angela Basset should get the Best Supporting Actress statue, I can't help but shoutout newcomer Stephanie Hus for one of this year's most transcendent performances. The cast of Everything Everywhere All at Once has been given the gifts of 1) being in the year's best film, 2) working with an incredible script by the Daniels, and 3) getting to play several versions of a character across dimensions. Hsu's Joy is, in many ways, the center of the film as it's her relationship with her mother that the action hinges on. Playing both a lesbian daughter trying to connect with her mom AND a vengeful supervillain, Hsu is demonstrating the full range of her talent. Because she was relatively unknown before the role, her nomination was never a lock, but I'm grateful that the Academy opted to honor her for undeniably magnificent work. 

While Paul Mescal, his chain, and his bare ass seized our attention in Normal People, and he popped up in last year's Oscar nominee, The Lost Daughter, he, like Hsu, is another newcomer the Academy recognized based solely on the strength of their performance. In Aftersun (which is the indie of the year, IMHO), Mescal plays a single father struggling to create good memories with his daughter on vacation while battling his own mental health demons. Mescal's chemistry with Frankie Corio (who plays his daughter) is magnetic, and just watching the pair chat by the pool or slurp ice cream cones is more entertaining than 75% of films I watch. He manages to convey so much with just his facial expressions, and as with so many of this year's first-time nominees, I hope it's the first of many. 

Perhaps this year's most sure lock for an Oscar win is Ke Huy Quan in the Best Supporting Actor category. Not only is the group generally a bit weak (with the Banshees actors splitting votes, Hirsch only having one scene, and Henry coming from a tiny tiny film), but Quan, like Hsu, is given such a rich variety of skills to exhibit. He's the comic relief yet he plays a suave gentleman in an alternate dimension. He's the kindly dad, yet also a kung fu warrior. He's a brokenhearted husband, but also the man who is saving the world. Not to mention, his comeback narrative after basically quitting acting when roles for an Asian adult dried up is the type of story Oscar voters get behind. He's won several precursors already, and I will be grinning from ear to ear when he takes home the Oscar statue. 

While the Best Actor race is much tighter with both Fraser and Butler as sturdy challengers to Farrell, I am out here stumping for my beloved Irish king. Banshees is an exquisite movie for many reasons, but the whole film rests on Farrell's back. He's the one enduring the emotional turmoil and confusion of a bewildering friend breakup. He's the one realizing he'll have to survive without his sister to take care of him. He's the one befriending donkeys. Colin Farrell has ridiculously never been nominated for an Oscar before despite dozens of roles that deserved the recognition. He's brilliant here. Honor the film. Honor the man. 

It is CRIMINAL that two of the best performances of the century are being given in the same year by actors in the same category. CRIMINAL. In nearly any other year, either Cate Blanchett or Michelle Yeoh would sweep the entire awards circuit with their masterful performances, and yet this year, only one of them can win. (Where were they during the Judy year? Or when Brie Larson won for Room? Or during the 2009 Blindside win?) Blanchett, who has already won twice before, should not win again because we need to spread the wealth and because Yeoh is just a hair better, BUT Lydia Tár is the best performance of Blanchett's career. As the narcissistic conductor headed towards destruction, she is mesmerizingly brilliant. I don't have a single note here, and I wish with my entire being that for this one year in this one category, they could give out two Oscars. 

But the best performance of the year by anyone in any film goes to Michelle Yeoh. As Evelyn Wang, the overbearing mother, tired wife, and exhausted daughter, Yeoh imbues her character with infinite humanity. Even if we were only taking in her performance during the scenes in her main dimension, this would be some of the best work ever put on film. But then you add in the fact that she's playing dozens of EXTREMELY DIFFERENT characters across dozens of universes, and the work becomes almost unfathomably brilliant. From a martial arts expert to a comedic genius to a leading lady to a lesbian with hotdog fingers, Yeoh is able to put her entire (MASSIVE) range as an actor on display. This is the role of a lifetime and Yeoh, who has not been given the credit she deserves for decades, does not waste a second of her screentime. I absolutely adore Everything Everywhere All at Once, and if Michelle Yeoh does not win Best Actress, I wish every Academy member papercuts between all their fingers.