Best Actress 2025

 Here is my top five in alphabetical order. These are the five I would nominate if I were an Academy of one.

ROSE BYRNE, If I Had Legs I'd Kick You

KATHLEEN CHALFANT, Familiar Touch

JENNIFER LAWRENCE, Die My Love

RENATE REINSVE, Affeksjonsverdi (Sentimental Value) 

JULIA ROBERTS, After the Hunt

Also loved:

Leonie Brenesch, Hilden (Late Shift)

Jessie Buckley, Hamnet

Britt Lower, Darkest Miriam

Eva Victor, Sorry, Baby

Apologies to:

Deragh Campbell (Matt and Mara), Gelmine Glemzaite (Drowning Dry), Andrea Bræin Hovig (Love), Dakota Johnson (Materialists), Diane Lane (Anniversary), Carey Mulligan (The Ballad of Wallis Island), Tessa Thompson (Hedda), Tessa Van den Broeck (Julie Keeps Quiet), and Alexi Wasser (Messy), whose movies I have not yet seen.

Related:

My Best Actress Picks from previous years (2004-2024)

My Best Actor Picks for 2025

My Best Supporting Actress Picks for 2025

My Best Supporting Actor Picks for 2025

Best Actress 2024

Here is my top five in alphabetical order. These are the five I would nominate if I were an Academy of one.

MZIA ARABULI, Crossing

LÉA DRUCKER, L'Été Dernier (Last Summer)

MARIANNE JEAN-BAPTISTE, Hard Truths

NICOLE KIDMAN, Babygirl

PATRICIA LÓPEZ ARNAIZ, 20.000 Especies de Abejas (20,000 Species of Bees)

Also loved:

Pamela Anderson, The Last Showgirl

Angelina Jolie, Maria

Kristen Stewart, Love Lies Bleeding

Tilda Swinton, The Room Next Door

Fernanda Torres, Ainda Estou Aqui (I'm Still Here)

Apologies to:

Amy Adams (Nightbitch), Patra Au (All Shall Be Well), Lily Collias (Good One), Jodie Comer (The End We Start From), Juliette Gariépy (Red Rooms), Isabelle Huppert (A Traveler's Needs), Mia McKenna Bruce (How to Have Sex), and Saoirse Ronan (The Outrun), whose movies I have not yet seen.

Related:

My Best Actress Picks from previous years (2004-2023)

My Best Actor Picks for 2024

My Best Supporting Actress Picks for 2024

My Best Supporting Actor Picks for 2024

Best Actress 2023

Here is my top five in alphabetical order. These are the five I would nominate if I were an Academy of one.

BAISHŌ CHIEKO, Plan 75

SANDRA HÜLLER, Anatomie d'une Chute (Anatomy of a Fall)

ALINE KÜPPENHEIM, 1976 (Chile '76)

CAREY MULLIGAN, Maestro

NATALIE PORTMAN, May December

Also loved:

Andō Sakura, Monster (怪物)

Lubna Azabal, Le Bleu du Caftan (The Blue Caftan)

Annette Bening, Nyad

Lily Gladstone, The Unknown Country

Joanna Scanlon, After Love

Apologies to:

Jessie Buckley (Fingernails), Zar Amir Ebrahimi (Shayda), Anne Hathaway (Eileen), Sally Hawkins (The Lost King), Eve Hewson (Flora and Son), Julia Louis-Dreyfus (You Hurt My Feelings), Joely Mbundu (Tori and Lokita), Rosy McEwen (Blue Jean), Saoirse Ronan (Foe), Sydney Sweeney (Reality), Teyana Taylor, (A Thousand and One), Michelle Williams (Showing Up), and Anaita Wali Zada (Fremont), whose movies I have not yet seen.

Related:

My Best Actress Picks from previous years (2004-2022)

My Best Actor Picks for 2023

My Best Supporting Actress Picks for 2023

My Best Supporting Actor Picks for 2023

Best Actress 2022

Here is my top five in alphabetical order. These are the five I would nominate if I were an academy of one.

CATE BLANCHETT, Tár

OLIVIA COLMAN, Empire of Light

GUSLAGIE MALANDA, Saint Omer

TANG WEI, Decision to Leave (헤어질 결심)

MICHELLE YEOH, Everything Everywhere All at Once (天馬行空)

Also loved:
Frankie Corio, Aftersun

Vicky Krieps, Corsage

Lesley Manville, Mrs. Harris Goes to Paris

Park Ji-min, Retour à Séoul (Return to Seoul)
Taylor Russell, Bones and All

Apologies to:
Penélope Cruz (Official Competition), Dale Dickey (A Love Song), Noomi Rapace (You Won't Be Alone), and Léa Seydoux (One Fine Morning), whose films I have not yet seen.

Related:
My Best Actress picks from past years (2004-2021)
My Best Actor picks from 2022 
My Best Supporting Actress picks from 2022 
My Best Supporting Actor picks from 2022

Best Actress 2021

I used to list my favorite actresses of the year in the order I would place them on my Academy ballot if I were allowed to vote. But I can't do that this year because one of my favorites is ineligible and two others are campaigning in the supporting actress category even though they are leads. So... here is my top five in alphabetical order. These are the five I would nominate if I were an academy of one.

CAITRÍONA BALFE, Belfast

OLIVIA COLMAN, The Lost Daughter

JASNA ĐURIČIĆ, Quo Vadis, Aida?

RUTH NEGGA, Passing

KRISTEN STEWART, Spencer

Also loved:
Jessica Chastain, The Eyes of Tammy Faye
Penélope Cruz, Madres Paraleles (Parallel Mothers)
Krisha Fairchild, Freeland

Renate Reinsve, Verdens Verste Menneske (The Worst Person in the World)
Tilda Swinton, Memoria

Apologies to:
Jodie Comer (The Last Duel), Seidi Haarla (Compartment No. 6), Vicky Krieps (Bergman Island), Molly Parker (Jockey), Rachel Sennott (Shiva Baby), and Léa Seydoux (France), whose films I have not yet seen.

Related:
My Best Actress picks from past years (2004-2020)
My Best Actor picks from 2021
My Best Supporting Actress picks from 2021
My Best Supporting Actor picks from 2021

Best Actress 2020+

My top choices in the order I would place them on my Academy ballot if I were allowed to vote. In other words, this is my top five, but I acknowledge that this list is already influenced by awards buzz. They are not in order of my preference. Instead, the actors whom I think would theoretically benefit the most from my vote are at the top.

VASILISA PERELYGINA, Beanpole (Дылда)

BARBARA SUKOWA, Deux (Two of Us)

SIDNEY FLANIGAN, Never Rarely Sometimes Always

VIOLA DAVIS, Ma Rainey's Black Bottom

FRANCES McDormand, Nomadland

Also loved:
Tsai Chen, Lucky Grandma (幸運的奶奶)
Viktoria Miroshnichenko, Beanpole (Дылда)
Carey Mulligan, Promising Young Woman
Yuliya Vysotskaya, Dear Comrades! (Дорогие Товарищи!)
Evan Rachel Wood, Kajillionaire
Wu Ke-Xi, Nina Wu (灼人秘密)

Apologies to:
Itsaso Arana (The August Virgin), Pamela Mendoza Arpi (Song without a Name), Radha Blank (The Forty-Year-Old Version), Carrie Coon (The Nest), Zahia Dehar (An Easy Girl), Clara Riedenstein (The Portuguese Woman), Ia Sukhitashvili (Beginning), and Abigél Szőke (Those Who Remained), whose films I have not yet seen.

Related:
My Best Actress picks from past years (2004-2019)
My Best Actor picks from 2020+
My Best Supporting Actress picks from 2020+
My Best Supporting Actor picks from 2020+

Best Actress 2019

My top choices in the order I would place them on my Academy ballot if I were allowed to vote. In other words, this is my top five, but I acknowledge that this list is already influenced by awards buzz. They are not in order of my preference. Instead, the actors whom I think would theoretically benefit the most from my vote are at the top.

ZHAO TAO, Ash Is Purest White (江湖儿女)

TAYLOR RUSSELL, Waves

ADÈLE HAENEL, Portrait de la Jeune Fille en Feu (Portrait of a Lady on Fire)

JENNIFER LOPEZ, Hustlers

SCARLETT JOHANSSON, Marriage Story

Also loved:
Ana Brun, Las Herederas (The Heiresses)
Sheila Munyiva, Rafiki
Saoirse Ronan, Little Women
Charlize Theron, Bombshell
Renée Zellweger, Judy

Apologies to:
Gemma Arterton (Vita & Virginia), Juliette Binoche (Frankie), Elizabeth Debicki (Vita & Virginia), Catherine Deneuve (Frankie), Keira Knightley (The Aftermath), Anna Paquin (Tell It to the Bees), Mary Kay Place (Diane), and Natalie Portman (Lucy in the Sky), whose films I have not yet seen.

Related:
My Best Actress picks from past years (2004-2018)
My Best Actor picks from 2019
My Best Supporting Actress picks from 2019
My Best Supporting Actor picks from 2019

Best Actress 2018

My top choices in the order I would place them on my Academy ballot if I were allowed to vote. In other words, this is my top five, but I acknowledge that this list is already influenced by awards buzz. They are not in order of my preference. Instead, the actors whom I think would theoretically benefit the most from my vote are at the top.

ANDŌ SAKURA, Shoplifters (万引き家族)

THOMASIN McKENZIE, Leave No Trace

JOANNA KULIG, Zimna Wojna (Cold War)

MELISSA McCARTHY, Can You Ever Forgive Me?

OLIVIA COLMAN, The Favourite

Also loved:
Sarah Adler, Der Kuchenmacher (The Cakemaker) (האופה-מברלין)
Yalitza Aparicio, Roma
Juliette Binoche, Un Beau Soleil Intérieur (Let the Sunshine In)
Glenn Close, The Wife 
Toni Collette, Hereditary
Regina Hall, Support the Girls 
Charlize Theron, Tully

Apologies to:
Chanté Adams (Roxanne Roxanne), Nathalie Baye (The Guardians), Trine Dyrholm (Nico, 1988), Adèle Exarchopolous (Racer and the Jailbird), Kathryn Hahn (Private Life), Felicity Jones (On the Basis of Sex), Nicole Kidman (Destroyer), Eva Melander (Border), Carey Mulligan (Wildlife), Michelle Pfeiffer (Where Is Kyra?), Rosamund Pike (A Private War), Sharon Stone (All I Wish), Tilda Swinton (Suspiria), and Shailene Woodley (Adrift), whose films I have not yet seen.

Related:
My Best Actress picks from past years (2004-2017)
My Best Actor picks from 2018
My Best Supporting Actress picks from 2018
My Best Supporting Actor picks from 2018

Best Actress 2017

My top choices in the order I would place them on my Academy ballot if I were allowed to vote. In other words, this is my top five, but I acknowledge that this list is already influenced by awards buzz. They are not in order of my preference. Instead, the actresses whom I think would theoretically benefit the most from my vote are at the top.

MARYANA SPIVAK, Loveless (Нелюбовь)

KRISTEN STEWART, Personal Shopper

FLORENCE PUGH, Lady Macbeth

SAOIRSE RONAN, Lady Bird

FRANCES McDORMAND, Three Billboards outside Ebbing, Missouri

Also loved:

Simone Bucio, La Región Salvaje (The Untamed)
Trine Dyrholm, Kollektivet (The Commune)
Vicky Krieps, Phantom Thread
Rooney Mara, Song to Song
Véro Tshanda Beya Mputu, Félicité
Cynthia Nixon, A Quiet Passion
Jessie Pinnick, Princess Cyd
Haley Lu Richardson, Columbus
Meryl Streep, The Post

Apologies to:

Annette Bening (Film Stars Don't Die in Liverpool), Holly Hunter (Strange Weather), Isabelle Huppert (Happy End), and Kim Min-hee (On the Beach at Night Alone), whose films I have not yet seen.

Related:

My Best Actress picks from past years (2004-2016)
My Best Actor picks from 2017
My Best Supporting Actress picks from 2017
My Best Supporting Actor picks from 2017

Best Actress 2016

My top choices in the order I would place them on my Academy ballot if I were allowed to vote. In other words, this is my top five, but I acknowledge that this list is already influenced by awards buzz, and the actresses who I think would theoretically benefit the most from my vote are at the top.

ANNETTE BENING, 20th Century Women

REBECCA HALL, Christine

CATHERINE FROT, Marguerite

ISABELLE HUPPERT, L'Avenir (Things to Come)

VIOLA DAVIS, Fences

Also loved:

Amy Adams, Nocturnal Animals
Juliette Binoche, L'Attesa (The Wait)
Sonia Braga, Aquarius
Sally Field, Hello, My Name Is Doris
Taraji P. Henson, Hidden Figures
Royalty Hightower, The Fits
Sandra Hüller, Toni Erdmann
Isabelle Huppert, Elle
Kiki Kirin, Sweet Bean (あん)
Lou de Laâge, Les Innocentes (The Innocents)
Ruth Negga, Loving
Susan Sarandon, The Meddler
Léa Seydoux, Journal d'une Femme de Chambre (Diary of a Chambermaid)

Apologies to:

Jessica Chastain (Miss Sloane), Catherine Deneuve (Standing Tall), and Krisha Fairchild (Krisha), whose films I have not yet seen but will see soon.

Related:

My Best Actress picks from past years (2004-2016)
My Best Actor picks from 2016
My Best Supporting Actress picks from 2016
My Best Supporting Actor picks from 2016