5) Mads Mikkelsen (Another Round)

After spending several years bolstering his name in Hollywood to be household, Mads Mikkelsen returned to Denmark to release two homegrown films over the last year. Riders of Justice is very good, but it’s for his performance in Another Round that he takes this place on the list. Reunited with The Hunter director, Thomas Vinterverg, Mikkelsen gives a down-to-earth performance where what’s behind the eyes does a lot of the talking. It’s both comedic at times and ultimately a dramatic and sad performance in a film that culminates in one of the most satisfying finales.

— Dylan Blight

4) Carey Mulligan (Promising Young Woman)

Carey Mulligan plays Cassie, a woman who at night feigns drunkenness to confront the men who try to take advantage of her. The movie quickly moves into a revenge film as Cassie’s focus shifts to the actual people responsible for her pain, with Mulligan truly captivating as she orchestrates her plan on each of her victims. In a film that can shift tonally on a dime, going from goofily dancing to Paris Hilton in a pharmacy to some incredibly dark subject matter, Mulligan handles it all in stride, delivering a performance that stuck with me all these many months later.

— Ashley Hobley

3) Anthony Hopkins (The Father)

Anthony Hopkins proves that age is no barrier to great acting as he gives one of the best performances of his career as a man in his eighties. As Anthony, an elderly man suffering from dementia, Hopkins truly displays the confusion and fear that one with this condition would experience. Watching as he genuinely believes he is in a different time and place is heartbreaking each time, with Hopkins delivering in the film’s devastating conclusion. A truly moving performance.

— Ashley Hobley

2) Benedict Cumberbatch (The Power of the Dog)

In The Power of the Dog, Benedict Cumberbatch gives an all-star career performance as the rancher Phil Burbank. He’s a hard, cruel man that is tough on his younger brother and fights with obvious violent tendencies. He is not a likable character or someone enjoyable to spend with. Yet, the performance is captivating as Cumberbatch gives himself to the character and loses his own good heart into the webs of the outwardly masculine role. He is scary at times, but it is a character well worth discussing after the credits roll and a standout from 2021.

— Dylan Blight

1) Andrew Garfield (tick, tick… BOOM!)

In a year in which a number of his projects came out like The Eyes of Tammy Fay, Andrew Garfield’s standout performance of the year is in Tick, Tick…Boom. Playing the creator of Rent in this biopic-musical adaptation amalgamation, Garfield gives an incredible performance that should relate to anyone who has chased a creative passion. His procrastinating when trying to write an important song hits particularly close to home as I may or may not be writing this mere minutes before this is scheduled to post.

After taking numerous singing lessons in the lead, Garfield sounds amazing with near-universal praise. With his incredible singing, his endearing theatre-kid energy and his natural charisma, Garfield’s performance is a loving tribute to Jonathan Larson and creatives still working the craft for a chance everywhere.

— Ashley Hobley