The best film performances of 2024, including Glen Powell, Zendaya and Nicole Kidman

The year in cinema 2024 is officially behind us, which gives us an opportunity to commend the great performances of the year that was.

The past year in film gave us some absolutely incredible feats of acting, from rising actors etching their place in the stars to established veterans showing us why they're so good at what they do.

We've compiled 20 films and the performances from those films that have stuck with us over the last year or so, and we've detailed why those actors deserve so much commendation for what they've given us.

Let's run through who they are, what film they were in and why their performances were special.

Some NSFW language to follow.

Brigette Lundy-Paine, I Saw the TV Glow

Lundy-Paine is going to be a titanic force in movies for years to come. Their jaw-dropping turn in I Saw the TV Glow is nothing short of a revelation, as director Jane Schoenbrun gives Lundy-Paine some of the most memorable scenes of the decade. In those, they absolutely thrive. Playing such a sullen character hiding so much intense mystery is no small feat, and Lundy-Paine takes such an etherial ascension in the performance you don't even feel like they're acting. Their performance is a brilliant haunting, a dreamlike spine-rattler that pins you to your seat and basically dares you to ignore its power. Theirs is comfortably the best performance of the year, perhaps even the decade.

Marianne Jean-Baptiste, Hard Truths

In Mike Leigh's Hard Truths, Jean-Baptiste gives her impossible character striking depth underneath the ornery visage of brutal cantankerousness. Her Pansy can't avoid a confrontation if she wanted to, taking on most all interpersonal interactions as both the aggressor and the aggrieved. She's deeply unpleasant, wholly toxic and unintentionally hysterical, but both Leigh and Jean-Baptiste refuse to let Pansy's pain slip through the spiky characterization. She's a woman carrying great burden, both of her own creation and of forces beyond her control.

Most films just treat characters like Pansy as linear, able to rise or fall in the direction of redemption or ruin by the end credits. Pansy is just more complicated than that, like most of the extremely difficult people in our lives often are. What power film has when it refuses to cut corners and doesn't give us any easy answers for why people are the way they are or if they can actually change. Jean-Baptiste drifts between Pansy's destructive instincts and her fledgling moments of grace in ways that will never leave you. Hers is a tour de force if there ever was one.

Adrien Brody, The Brutalist

Carrying a three and a half hour epic on your back is intimidating for any actor, and filmmaker Brady Corbet stakes the farm on Brody's ability to make László Tóth stand the test of time and duration. Just like Cate Blanchett did with Lydia Tár, Brody gives Tóth the credibility of mimicry. You believe this is a real man who suffered unbelievable tragedies to thrive in his craft, who rejoiced in the glory of coming to America as a Holocaust survivor and who hardened like the concrete he used to build his great works as living the American dream as an immigrant took its inevitable toll.

Brody refuses to make Tóth a pure conduit for theme; he adds little flourishes of pride, sorrow and vulnerability that solidify the role as complicated as opposed to just representative. The Brutalist wouldn't work without him. Tóth might not be a real person, but you feel him in your bones.

Ensemble, Sing Sing

Only those without a beating heart would deny the emotional catharsis of Sing Sing, a film largely staffed by real-life formerly incarcerated actors playing past versions of themselves. Holding their own against former Oscar nominees like Colman Domingo and Paul Raci is no easy feat, but each formerly incarcerated actor blends in beautifully with the hard-earned material. Clarence "Divine Eye" Maclin in particular goes toe-to-toe with Domingo with his lasting self-portrait, and Sean "Dino" Johnson delivers one of the biggest gut-punches of the year in any film ensemble. Longtime theater veteran and Domingo collaborator Sean San José also shines brightly among the talented cast.

Josh Hartnett, Trap

M. Night Shyamalan remains as playfully grim all these years later as he was at his peak, capitalizing on Hartnett's career revival in the best possible way. Hartnett somehow combines the menace of a serial killer and the doting geniality of a capital-D Dad into one of the year's most intoxicating performances, one that really does make you feel at least feel a little sorry for a monster. As much as the concert is a giant trap to catch Hartnett so he won't kill again, Hartnett's performance is both a lure and camouflage. He uses local yokel dad vibes to trick people into trust and slithers his way through obstacle after obstacle unscathed because of course he does.

It's a thrilling display of deftness in genre acting, as Hartnett never loses the balance of terror and paternal instinct. By film's end, a guy whose nickname is quite literally "the Butcher" will elicit just a tiny bit of your sympathy (y'know, parent to parent), making Hartnett's performance one of Shyamalan's greatest twists in ages. It's an actor and filmmaker gleefully aligned in sicko mode.

Kieran Culkin & Jesse Eisenberg, A Real Pain

Trying to write off Culkin's performance in A Real Pain as reheated Succession misses the nuance. Benji Kaplan and Roman Roy share in common their eccentricities and their actor, but Kaplan and Roy couldn't be further apart in the way Culkin approaches them deep down. Jesse Eisenberg's sophomore feature gives Culkin a chance to expand his quirks into real scars, where outbursts and outlandish encounters drive as much empathy as they do annoyance.

We all have people like Benji in our lives, who we adore and feel like we have to apologize for after they make a scene. We'll never understand them fully, but we feel like we have to keep trying out of love and duty. Eisenberg doesn't get the flash Culkin does because he stands in for us, openly grappling with his own pain in trying understand another's. Both actors give Eisenberg's script the gravity to make the film really special.

Nicole Kidman & Harris Dickinson, Babygirl

All you need to know about Kidman and Harrison in Babygirl is that this is what people talk about when they talk about movie stardom. Kidman has been doing this for so long, and it's no surprise she can completely disappear into her deceptively icy corporate executive ready to throw everything away for indulging repressed desire. Dickinson is the new kid on the block, a 12-volt battery of focused ferocity who matches Kidman step for step. Watching these two slip further and further into their dangerous affair, into the delirium and ecstasy of giving into each other's worst impulses in secret, makes for electric cinema. It's why Babygirl is one of the year's best films.

Ensemble, Anora

The entire cast of Anora, from Mikey Madison's breathtaking lead performance to Yura Borisov's pensive take on one of the henchmen, is a perfect match for Sean Baker's script and vibe. Baker is one of the best filmmakers around when it comes to building an ensemble, and he might have assembled his best one yet with Anora. Everyone just understands the assignment in every moment, and that's not easy when walking a high-wire act as the one Baker stages with Anora.

Jesse Plemons, Civil War

In less than 10 minutes, Plemons sucks the air out of the room and breaks down our resolve with his small role in Civil War. He leaves a lump in your throat and puts your heart on ice in such little screen time, playing a nameless, racist militant whose pointed questions about American origin underscore key themes in Alex Garland's harrowing "What if?" war drama. Great performances come in all shapes and sizes, and Plemons wows by how big he can make such a small role. Those neon-red sunglasses and those bullet-fast glances will haunt your memory.

Nicholas Hoult, Juror No. 2

Hoult had a dynamite 2024 with Juror No. 2, Nosferatu and The Order, but it's his anxious everyman in Clint Eastwood's legal drama that sticks with you the most. Hoult plays a pretty normal guy who finds himself in an incredibly unusual situation, one that tests his ethics against his self-preservation. Like the great morality plays, the conflict puts a man against himself and carefully follows where he might land next. Hoult gives the audience an easy vantage point, someone not that far off from the person in the mirror. You sweat it out with Hoult, and you feel every emotion across his face, visible and hidden. It's a whirlwind of a performance in a timeless movie. If you leave this one worried and challenged with what you would do in a similar situation, it's because Hoult and Eastwood did their jobs so well.

Zendaya, Josh O'Connor & Mike Faist, Challengers

The year's most screwed-up romantic triangle came with Challengers, and there isn't a false note between each of the film's leads. They're all swept up in competition, the highs and the lows of putting yourself on the line for the game you love and the people you fight for. Trying to find the line between the two makes Challengers such an engrossing watch, and Zendaya, Faist and especially O'Connor in a breakout role fearlessly dive into the shamelessness of sport and the fiery devotion to their thorny entanglements. You don't want to surround yourself with any of these characters, but you love watching them because the actors are so compelling. These characters love mess, and we love them because of it.

Elizabeth Olsen, Carrie Coon & Natasha Lyonne, His Three Daughters

Three estranged sisters must confront their differences and lingering resentments in the face of a dying patriarch, and not one of the actors outshines the other. Azazel Jacobs' intimate family drama features three genuinely remarkable performances from Olsen, Coon and Lyonne. They're all functioning in different modes of grief, and all three hit you with upper cuts when you least expect it. Olsen in particular, in all honesty, channels early Meryl Streep with Christina. That's such a lofty comparison to make that it almost seems unfair, but to be able to navigate the film's showiest role with such grace and believability hearkens to Streep's finest roles.

Ryan Destiny & Bryan Tyree Henry, The Fire Inside

The boxing movie has been well-exhausted at this point, but The Fire Inside is no ordinary boxing movie. Destiny and Henry add emotional dimensions to the boxer and coach as the real-life ramifications of Claressa "T-Rex" Shields' Olympic gold win play out after the final bell. Destiny is a find, channeling a quiet intensity beyond her years. Henry is as good as expected. In some moments, you don't even feel like he's acting. His paternal determination for Shields just feels real.

Aaron Pierre, Rebel Ridge

The year's biggest birth of a movie star came from Pierre in Jeremy Saulnier's brilliantly taut Rebel Ridge. Sometimes, you just know a guy has it. Pierre has it. His steely resolve and magnetic intimidation is a perfect fit for the material, but it also hints to a towering career in the profession. Seriously, what Pierre does in Rebel Ridge is really freaking hard to do. This guy is a lightning bolt.

Vera Drew, The People's Joker

It's really hard to deliver a great performance in a film you also wrote and directed, but Drew does just that with The People's Joker. She glides between Jim Carrey Riddler-levels of purposeful wackiness and that indelible sarcastic commentary from Melissa Joan Heart on Clarissa Explains It All. It's a gripping performance that promises plenty more great ones in the future. You can't wait to see what Drew does next and how she grows as an actor and as a filmmaker.

Glen Powell, Hit Man

Glen Powell is one of the most radiant dork-hunks in Hollywood history, smarmy and lethal in the way he slides right into his movie star wattage after hamming it up in a wig. Powell is going to be doing this for a long time, and Hit Man is his best vehicle yet for why the camera loves this guy. It's just deeply fun and captivating to watch great actors just do what they're great at, and you have to hope Powell keeps working with Richard Linklater for years to come. Like he does with Matthew McConaughey, Linklater knows exactly how to extract Powell's best qualities in performing.

Brendan Fraser, Brothers

For an actor who has literally acted opposite of the Looney Tunes, Fraser knows as well as anybody how to capture their manic comedy. In one of his big post-Oscar turns, Fraser basically morphs into a Looney Tunes character as a corrupt cop in the criminally overlooked Brothers. The way Fraser carelessly throws his body around and plays his vocal chords like an obtuse instrument of petulance reminds you of an amped-up "Big Boy" Pickles from Rugrats. Fraser is one of our greatest comedic actors, and this is one of his finest hours in the genre. A shame few have seen it.

Ryland Brickson Cole Tews, Hundreds of Beavers

The year's biggest surprise was Hundreds of Beavers, and its star is the embodiment of what makes the movie such a delight. Tews doesn't say many words as his intrepid, desperate fur trapper Jean Kayak, pushing against Murphy's Law and a horde of literal beavers straight out of a Bob Clampett marathon. However, his expressive performance makes him fit right in with the zany costumed supporting cast. Buster Keaton would be proud to see what Tews achieves here.

Juliette Gariépy, Red Rooms

Gariépy had the toughest role of 2024 in Red Rooms. Much like her confusingly sociopathic character, Gariépy plays Kelly-Anne with a poker face for the ages. You never know exactly what her motives are as she dives deeper and deeper into a gruesome trial of an alleged serial killer. Why would such a seemingly normal person on the outside would do so many outrageously dark things? What's her end game here? Do I know anybody like this, and can I delete their number from my phone as soon as possible? Gariépy refuses any easy reads on her character, and that's a stunning testament to the degree of difficulty in the performance. It's a chilling slam dunk.

Ralph Fiennes, Conclave

Fiennes is one of those veteran actors who just makes a movie better by him being in it, almost as if the cinematic vibes take a jump the second he comes on screen. Fiennes is film incarnate, and he's rarely been better than by playing his stressed Vatican official who bears the burden of electing a new pope. Fiennes' concern doesn't ever feel manufactured, and it's the kind of wallop from a long-time actor that awards typically recognize. If he wins the Oscar for Best Actor, it'll be earned.

This article originally appeared on For The Win: The best film performances of 2024, including Glen Powell, Zendaya and Nicole Kidman