Spoilers ahead
It is film awards season once again, and while these shows have rightfully recognized numerous incredible performances from the past year, many have gone under the radar. Whether it be recency bias or the film itself being divisive among critics, these are just a few of the best performances of the year “snubbed” from the conversation.
Lily-Rose Depp - “Nosferatu”
“Nosferatu” may have picked up a couple of nominations at the Academy Awards (primarily for craft), but it was completely shut out from any performance categories. Bill Skarsgård’s unrecognizable transformation into Count Orlok was tragically overlooked, but even more egregious was the lack of recognition for Lily-Rose Depp’s remarkable work as Ellen Hutter.
Despite coming on to replace Anya Taylor-Joy in the role, Depp seemed almost made for the role. She embodies the physicality of a spirit-possessed woman, believably flipping between a terrified patient and a vessel for the dead. Her contortions are almost inhumanly real, but it is also balanced out with an intense sentimentality. She pairs beautifully with Nicholas Hoult’s Thomas Hutter, leaning into the genuine love that drives them both amidst unexplainable horror.
Read Casey Loving’s review of Depp in “Nosferatu” for Annenberg Media.
Josh Hartnett - “Trap”
While “Trap” might be the most divisive film on this list, the one undeniable piece that holds the film together is actor Josh Hartnett. Hartnett plays Cooper, a loving father and serial killer known as “the Butcher.”
Hartnett is having a bit of his own Renaissance, between a supporting role in Christopher Nolan’s “Oppenheimer” and an upcoming starring role in the action film “Fight or Flight.” However, it’s “Trap” where he shows his vast range and prowess. He’s a chameleon in this, both as an actor and as the character he plays.
As Cooper figures out how to escape a pop concert set up to ensnare him, he’s forced to change identities according to the situation. In some moments, he’s acting as the sorrowful father with a leukemia-diseased daughter. In others, he’s a friendly firefighter and family man. There is one moment when he encounters police, posing as a distressed concessions stand worker, where his timidity and vulnerability convince even highly trained professionals.
Above all, Hartnett portrays a monster: an unfeeling killer who begins to lose grasp of his sanity once he is forced to confront his trauma and suppressed emotion.
The most terrifying part about the performance is the moments in which even the audience can buy into his façade. Once he drops the mask Hartnett appears almost completely hollow—devoid of any recognizable emotion.
Chris Hemsworth - “Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga”
In venturing beyond his past franchise work as the stoic and comedic Thor in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Chris Hemsworth divorces himself completely from that personality for his work as the antagonist of “Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga.”
Trading in shining armor and luxurious hair for rags and a scruffy beard for the role of Dementus, Hemsworth has never before been more animalistic. Returning to his Australian roots, he joins forces with director George Miller in defining one of the most pivotal characters in the “Mad Max” mythology. He not only exhibits the nutty charisma of a younger Dementus, but also the aging madness of a failing warlord. Hemsworth transforms that ruthless optimism into something angry and nihilistic, failing to find a purpose in a Wasteland where survival is the only priority.
Read author Ethan Huang’s review of “Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga” for Annenberg Media.
Maika Monroe - “Longlegs”
While “Longlegs” rightfully drew praise for its spine-chilling performance by Nicholas Cage, one of the more underappreciated aspects of it is the film’s very own lead, Lee Harker, portrayed by Maika Monroe.
What is striking about Monroe’s performance is how natural it feels. “Longlegs’” successful marketing as one of the scariest films in recent years included a clip of Monroe’s heart rate spiking as she first saw Cage in full makeup.
That sense of realism is what makes Monroe’s performance special. Despite her sixth sense, she feels grounded with how her character taps into that universal fear audiences also experience. As the Longlegs monster also digs under Monroe’s skin, the viewers feel a sense of uneasiness.
Katy O’Brian - “Love Lies Bleeding”
In 2022, the Hollywood Reporter announced that Kristen Stewart had signed on to appear in Rose Glass’ latest film. They stated that opposite her, the film was looking for an actress to take on the role of a female bodybuilder.
Katy O’Brian simply replied with a photo of herself and the caption, “I’m free.”
Two years later, she starred in her breakout lead performance alongside Stewart in “Love Lies Bleeding.”
While O’Brian had previously appeared in smaller roles across both the Marvel Cinematic Universe and Star Wars (as well as an upcoming role in “Mission Impossible: The Final Reckoning”), the 2024 film serves as a showcase of her acting range.
The erotic crime thriller sees O’Brian aspiring to make it in the bodybuilding world, but becomes trapped in a web of the seedy underworld linked to her romantic interest, Lou (Stewart). She literally embodies the character of Jackie, with all her sentimentality, ambition and unhinged descent.
At the drop of a hat, O’Brian can flip between the charming drifter and steroid-induced ruthlessness as she is quickly drawn into the chaos of crime and passion.
Joan Chen - “Dìdi”
“Dìdi” was a surprise hit among niche audiences in 2024. The coming-of-age story of a young Taiwanese American boy living in Fremont, California, served as a semi-autobiographical retelling of director Sean Wang’s own upbringing. Depending on the viewer, the specificity of that experience either completely resonated with or alienated them, but its performances were unanimously lauded.
While actor Izaac Wang steals the show as a troubled teenager navigating romance and family, actress Joan Chen is the foundation of the movie. Chen plays a struggling mother pressured by other parents and her mother-in-law alike. Her performance is so viscerally human, doing her everything to remain loving and kind to a difficult son, but occasionally succumbing to those external anxieties.
Léa Seydoux - “The Beast”
While the phrase “Lynchian” has come to describe any and every film with a slight sense of “weird” in it, “The Beast” is one of the few that seems to come remotely close to the language spoken in works like “Twin Peaks.”
Loosely adapted from a short story from the early 1900s, “The Beast” centers on Gabrielle, played by Léa Seydoux. Living in the year 2044, she undergoes a procedure to erase all her emotions for the sake of becoming more suitable for work in an AI-dominated economy.
This means reliving her past lives, once in 1910 as a pianist and doll-maker, and once in 2014 as a model and actress. The film is one of the scariest of the year, though not in the traditional sense. It creates its terror utilizing the facets of the technological age, leveraging that paranoia of living in a big house with no one around, security cameras that see all and even computer pop-ups that flood one’s device with viruses.
A large part of that anxiety comes from Seydoux’s performance, acting as a woman afraid of something unidentifiable, but also desperate for love. Her captivating work slips audiences into her shoes, pushing them to feel what it is like to be stalked by an incel and the riveting tide of sorrow knowing the person she once loved is now truly lost to her.
Adam Pearson - “A Different Man”
Although Sebastian Stan has been getting well-deserved recognition for his work on the 2024 film “A Different Man,” his co-star Adam Pearson is seemingly going unnoticed among awards voters.
While Stan portrayed the insecure and tortured Edward, Pearson played the complete opposite. Pearson more or less channeled his personality in real life—charming, confident and openly embracing of his neurofibromatosis. Pearson’s Oswald is the heart and soul of “A Different Man,” serving not only as a narrative foil to Edward, but also as the crux of much of the film’s action.
Aaron Pierre - “Rebel Ridge”
When the trailer for “Rebel Ridge” first dropped, audiences were expecting a small-scale anti-cop action thriller, but the real film is something else entirely. “Rebel Ridge” is more akin to the “Reacher” television series, showing a somewhat soft-spoken drifter confronting a corrupt police force where all the action is purely nonlethal.
Lead Aaron Pierre is monumental in this. He has a magnetic presence that makes both his action-oriented and quieter moments all the more impactful. By itself, “Rebel Ridge” is a solid small town conspiracy thriller, but with Pierre, it is elevated to something so much more.
Nicholas Hoult - “Juror #2″
Nicholas Hoult had one of the best years of his career, turning in four performances ranging from “The Garfield Movie” to “Nosferatu,” and he is showing no signs of stopping with his upcoming appearance as Lex Luthor in 2025′s “Superman.
His most vulnerable work of recent memory would be in Clint Eastwood’s “Juror #2.” The film plays similarly to the classic film “12 Angry Men,” with a single juror turning the tide of debate for the rest of the film. The twist: Hoult’s character realizes that he may be responsible for the crime himself. Eastwood’s latest questions the nature of justice and reckons with both the nature of subjectivity in the courtroom and the hidden truth behind the veil.
Hoult’s performance carries that burden, bleeding his moral questioning into every scene. It is a nuanced and subtle performance, but it serves its role as a point of view character, asking the audience, “What would you do?”