Ranking the Decade's Best Actress Oscar Winners

This is a much stronger list than the list of Best Actor winners – perhaps because they seem to like men to GO BIG in order to win most years, and they (smartly) don’t require than of women. They have their own blind spots when giving Oscars to lead actresses – but it’s a solid list.

 

10. Meryl Streep, The Iron Lady (2011)- Look, I love Meryl Streep – she is a legend, and one of the best performers in movie history, and is certainly deserving of three Oscars. But for this film? Really? Seriously every one of her other 8 nominations this century was better than this. The movie is bad – really bad – and I still cannot believe that the filmmakers thought the story of Margaret Thatcher – one of the most complicated and controversial figures of the 20^th Century – needed to spend so much time with her in her final years suffering for Alzheimer’s, literally the least interesting thing about her. I get wanting Streep to get a richly deserved third Oscar – but for this?

Who Should Have Won (of the Nominees): Can we talk about how Michelle Williams still doesn’t have an Oscar, and how embarrassing that is? Her performance in My Week with Marilyn truly is great – taking an iconic figure, and making her human. It isn’t her best work – but it was the best of the nominees this year.

 

9. Julianne Moore, Still Alice (2014) – Julianne Moore should have several Oscars at home – at bare minimum for Safe, Boogie Nights and Far From Heaven – and you can probably make a case for several others. So, they clearly felt a need to make up for that egregious mistake by finally giving Moore an Oscar. But Still Alice is a bore – the only thing worth watching it for is Moore’s performance, who is very good as a women slipping into early onset Alzheimer’s. But it is just a very dull movie – I cannot imagine ever watching it again.

Who Should Have Won (of the Nominees): I would have liked to see Marion Cottillard win her Oscar for her amazing work in Two Days, One Night instead of the not so great La Vie En Rose last decade. But the truly best performance nominated – and the most iconic – is Rosamund Pike in Gone Girl – which was one of the best performances of the decade, and is that rare case of an Oscar nominated performance being criminally underrated.

 

8. Renee Zellweger, Judy (2019) – This was that rare biopic performance that really did bring together subject and performer, illuminating both, but perhaps more Zellweger than Judy Garland. It was a great comeback story for the Oscar winning actress, and it is the type of showy performance that wins. And she is good in it – better than the film itself. When I watched it a second time, I liked it less, but as a one off Zellweger is very good in a mediocre movie.

Who Should Have Won (Of the Nominees): Saoirse Ronan should easily have an Oscar by now – and her work in Little Women is excellent. My favorite though was Scarlett Johansson in Marriage Story – who delivers a wonderful performance, and fights an uphill battle in the narrative, and comes out great.

 

7. Emma Stone, La La Land (2016) – Stone is the heart of La La Land, the wonderfully romantic musical love story, and clearly the most sympathetic character (Ryan Gosling is a little bit of a jerk in the film – and I think the movie knows it). But with Stone, you simply fall in love with her here – she is utterly charming and wonderful throughout. It isn’t the deepest performance, but Stone plays it as good as it can be played.

Who Should Have Won (Of the Nominees): You can make the case that Isabelle Huppert is the best actress in the world, and her brilliant performance in Paul Verhoeven’s controversial Elle is one of the very best of the decade, and one of the very best of her amazing career – and sadly, the only time she’s ever even been nominated.

 

6. Brie Larson, Room (2015) – To many, Room was probably Brie Larson’s breakthrough role – a wonderful performance of a kidnap victim, and mother, protecting her young son from the man who has imprisoned and repeatedly raped over the years. It’s a great performance by Larson –both inside and outside of the room – and it made her into a major star, which she deserved. A terrific performance.

Who Should Have Won (Of the Nominees): One of the best years for nominees in a while – Larson is great, as is Cate Blanchett in Carol, but I am torn between Saoirse Ronan in Brooklyn, who is wonderful, sensitive, subtle in this dreamy, romantic Brooklyn, and Charlotte Rampling in 45 Years – as a woman blindsided when she realizes her marriage isn’t quite what she thought it was.

 

5. Jennifer Lawrence, Silver Linings Playbook (2012) – This was a decade that Lawrence became one of the biggest movie stars in the world with The Hunger Games – and an Oscar favorite with her work in Winter’s Bone, American Hustle and Joy – as well as this one which won her the Oscar. She is excellent in the movie – too young for the role, sure, but she’s so charming, so funny, so direct, that you don’t care. This is what movie stars can do given the right role. A great performance that makes this movie as good as it is.

Who Should Have Won (Of the Nominees): I would have loved to see Jessica Chastain win for Zero Dark Thirty – which I think is her best performance to date. But I really think that the best performance nominated was by Emmanuelle Riva in Amour – a career capping performance for a legendary actress.

 

4. Frances McDormand, Three Billboards outside Ebbing, Missouri (2017) – I loved Three Billboards when I saw at TIFF 2017, before the controversy really started, and while my feelings have cooled a little bit since then (I still think it’s wonderful- just maybe not as good as it appeared at first look) – none of that cooling has to do with Frances McDormand’s fiery performance, a great bookend to her first Oscar win for Fargo in 1996 – because the two are very different performances. McDormand is one of the best actresses in the world – and this is a performance that will be one of the performances she is remembered for.

Who Should Have Won (of the Nominees): McDormand’s is probably the right choice out of what they nominated (I think the best performance this year may have been Vicky Krieps in Phantom Thread) – but I’ll also say that Saoirse Ronan for Lady Bird would have been a fine choice as well.

 

3. Cate Blanchett, Blue Jasmine (2013) – Cate Blanchett’s performance in Blue Jasmine is one of her absolute best – a brilliant take inspired by Blanche DuBois, but moved to a modern day, in San Francisco, and has Blanchett go all out from beginning to end. When she won for The Aviator (2004) she was overdue – when she won here, she was overdue for recognition in the lead category – one of the best performances of her career. The black mark on it is that it’s the film where the Woody Allen controversy really exploded, and the tide really started to turn against him. That doesn’t distract from home brilliant Blanchett is here.

Who Should Have Won (Of the Nominees): Blanchett was far and away the best performance nominated – and it really isn’t close – even if there were some wonderful performances this year that didn’t get nominated.

 

2. Olivia Colman, The Favourite (2018) – You can argue – not without merit – that Colman is really a supporting player in The Favourite – but I always thought she was a lead. And no matter what, Colman is brilliant as the petulant, childlike queen, who has numerous people trying to manipulate her – and as she slowly comes to realize her own power. She is also absolutely hilarious at the centre of this really dark film. A brilliant performance by a character actress getting her chance.

Who Was the Best (Of the Nominees): Colman was the best choice here – you could make a case for Yalitza Aparicio in Roma – but Colman is absolutely the right choice.

 

1. Natalie Portman, Black Swan (2010) – Natalie Portman is a great actress, and she is perhaps at her best when her characters spiral downwards into insanity – which she has done several times over the years. But her performance in Black Swan is the best performance of her career – a dark descent, wonderful dancing, and the look of a horror film from Darren Aronofsky. Portman is stunning in this film – and the best winner this Academy had all decade.

Who Should Have Won (Of the Nominees): Oddly, even though this is the best winner of the decade, I do think that I would have picked Michelle Williams in Blue Valentine even above Portman, but they both really are two of the best performances of the decade.