2018 was a breakout year for Awkwafina with scene-stealing supporting roles in Ocean’s 8 and Crazy Rich Asians. In The Farewell, Awkwafina is given the lead and proves she’s capable of far more than comic relief.

In Lulu Wang’s semi-biographical film, Awkwafina plays Billi, a woman travelling home to see her cancer-diagnosed grandmother (Zhao Shuzhen, who could easily be on this list) who doesn’t know about her condition. Awkwafina’s performance—caught between honesty and cultural expectations—is a delight to experience.

She also brought the funny this year in Jumanji: The Next Level as the thief avatar Ming Fleetfoot.

– Ashley Hobley

After years of romantic comedies, reality TV judging, and middling genre fare, Jennifer Lopez reminded us how good she can be—in arguably her best performance to date, or at least since Out of Sight or her breakout in Selena.

As veteran stripper turned scam artist Ramona Vega in Hustlers, Lopez gets a character with layers: the performer who enjoys her power over men, the mother hen who takes Constance Wu’s Destiny and others under her wing, and the criminal willing to push a scheme to its limits. Lopez plays each aspect perfectly and is so captivating the audience can’t help but root for her despite the terrible things she’s doing.

– Ashley Hobley

Florence Pugh first made a striking impression in 2016’s Lady Macbeth and has quickly been on track to become one of the biggest actors around—a title that could be cemented if her performance in next year’s Black Widow makes her a favourite with general audiences.

This year she appeared in Fighting with My Family as Saraya Knight, the real-life wrestler most known as Paige. But her biggest role was in Ari Aster’s follow-up to Hereditary, the horror-drama Midsommar.

In Midsommar, Pugh plays a distraught, depressed, and confused young woman who flies halfway around the world with her awful boyfriend to cope with a hugely traumatic event. It’s a relentless role—her character never gets a moment of reprieve from anxiety and night terrors—and Pugh makes it one of the year’s most memorable performances.

– Dylan Blight

In my very important opinion, Lupita Nyong’o is likely to be shunned by the Academy Awards—despite one of the year’s best performances—because it’s from a genre film. But that’s their usual way.

In Us, from Get Out director Jordan Peele, Nyong’o plays two very different characters who share the same face: Adelaide Wilson, a mum on holiday, and Red, a doppelgänger who breaks into Adelaide’s house and terrorises her family, supported by doppelgängers of each family member.

Us is more nuanced than that nutshell suggests—and so is Nyong’o’s work. Red, who stalks rooms to a metronomic beat with scissors in hand, is unforgettable, but Adelaide had to feel just as real for the film to work. Nyong’o succeeds on both counts and delivers a standout performance.

– Dylan Blight

2019 saw Scarlett Johansson return to Natasha Romanoff / Black Widow for the seventh time in Avengers: Endgame, the highest-grossing film of all time. Being one of the emotional pillars of that film would get most people on this list, but Johansson also gave a delightful performance in Taika Waititi’s Jojo Rabbit.

As Jojo’s secretly anti-Nazi mother Rosie, she had the chance to showcase her wit and comedic timing, delivered with much-needed heart.

As good as she is in those films, it’s her role in Marriage Story that will drive awards-season conversation. As Nicole, a mother and actor seeking herself outside her marriage to Adam Driver’s Charlie, Johansson gives a heartfelt, honest performance. With Noah Baumbach’s wonderful dialogue, she delivers one of the performances of her career, with several memorable scenes opposite Driver and Laura Dern.

– Ashley Hobley

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