The Best Performance of Every Year in the 2020s
This Collider feature runs through what its writers consider the single best film performance of each year from 2020 to 2025, marking a decade that has produced numerous acclaimed films across genres. The piece frames the exercise as uneven in difficulty, noting 2020 as a comparatively weak year for standout acting while 2022 offered an especially crowded field of contenders, reflecting the varying strength of cinema years overall.
Highlights include Anthony Hopkins in "The Father" (2020) as a man succumbing to dementia, with Chadwick Boseman's "Ma Rainey's Black Bottom" turn as runner-up, and Hidetoshi Nishijima in "Drive My Car" (2021), praised for a largely silent, face-driven performance, with Renate Reinsve in "The Worst Person in the World" as runner-up. For 2022, the article cites a wealth of contenders including Cate Blanchett in "Tár," Tang Wei in "Decision to Leave" and Colin Farrell, though the provided text is cut off before further years and full rankings are detailed.
- Collider names the best film performance for each year, 2020-2025.
- Anthony Hopkins ("The Father") and Hidetoshi Nishijima ("Drive My Car") top 2020-2021.
- 2022 is called the decade's strongest year for performances so far.
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The 2020s have been a rich decade for cinema, with critics regularly debating which films and performances stand out most. This piece looks back at each year from 2020 to 2025 and picks out the single acting performance its writers consider the best, alongside a runner-up, as a way of taking stock of the decade so far.
The selections span a range of well-known films and actors, including Anthony Hopkins for his role as a man living with dementia in "The Father," Chadwick Boseman in one of his final screen roles in "Ma Rainey's Black Bottom," and Hidetoshi Nishijima's understated performance in the Japanese drama "Drive My Car." Other years bring in international and awards-season favourites such as Renate Reinsve, Cate Blanchett and Tang Wei, reflecting how varied and, in some years, competitive the field of contenders has been.
Exercises like this matter to film fans because they shape ongoing conversations about acting craft and help contextualise awards seasons, but they are ultimately a matter of critical opinion rather than official rankings.