No one can deny that the Oscars are the most prestigious awards someone working in the film industry can win and some winners have stood out as the greatest of all time. Millions of viewers around the world tune into the Academy Awards show every year to watch in anticipation of whether their predictions match or to scoff at the choices the Academy made. From live performances of the Original Song Oscar contenders to listening to acceptance speeches, it’s a glitzy occasion worth watching.

However, the biggest part of the Academy Awards isn’t the show, as actors, directors, writers, cinematographers, makeup artists, VFX artists, singers, composers, and animators, among others, have their images permanently changed after even one brush with the Oscars. Being an Academy Award winner is and will always be considered one of the greatest achievements in the industry. While controversies, such as Oscar voters not watching movies, will continue to raise questions about the authenticity of the awards, it is undeniable that some of the best Oscar-winning performances of all time truly deserved the award and continue to enthrall us today.

12

J. K. Simmons As Terence Fletcher

Whiplash (2014)

Once you consider how small a budget the film was made with and how тιԍнт the production schedule was, Whiplash goes from just being a fantastic film to a showcase of pure talent. The entire crew worked overtime to complete work on it within the necessary schedule and deliver one of the greatest films about music ever. The five Academy Award nominations it received are testament to the film’s quality, beyond the fact that it manages to turn a film about a man learning to be a jazz drummer into a thriller, almost a horror film at times.

2014 was one of the best years in movie history, as the 2015 Academy Awards nominees’ list reveals, and it’s particularly difficult to determine just one deserving winner in any category from that year. However, J. K. Simmons’ win for Whiplash is deserved as he turned the strict coach Terence Fletcher into a truly terrifying villainous figure who could give viewers long-running nightmares. Simmons’ commitment to the craft can be seen in the way he disappeared into the role of the abrasive, insensitive, and occasionally despicable man.

11

Sidney Poitier As Homer Smith

Lilies Of The Field (1963)

One of the darkest moments in Oscars history was the 2015 and 2016 #OscarsSoWhite controversy that raged on due to all 20 nominees in acting categories being Caucasian at the 2015 Oscars. The controversy aimed to expose a history of racial discrimination on the part of the Academy. In fact, it is shocking that in its nearly 100 years of existence, acting Oscars have been won by only 23 African American actors and actresses. The statistics are even worse for performers from other racial backgrounds.

So, one of the most important milestones in the history of the Academy Awards, that remains relevant today, was Sidney Poitier’s Best Actor win in 1964, which made him the first Black actor to win the award. Poitier plays Homer Smith in Lilies of the Field, which follows his protagonist on his journey to help Catholic nuns construct a church in the desert. It is a minimalist film that champions empathy and the power of good deeds, and without Poitier’s endearing performance, it wouldn’t have carried the same emotional weight as it does.

10

Christoph Waltz As Hans Landa

Inglourious Basterds (2009)

Quentin Tarantino may be thought of as an entertainer whose films don’t demand much thought because of his sensationalist filmmaking, but the Academy loves his work. While he mostly creates movies featuring over-the-top violence, he is an expert screenwriter with an uncanny ability to gradually build tension in scenes through conversation. Moreover, as a director, he always brings out the best in his actors, as is witnessed by the many performances from his films that have been nominated for an Oscar.

Among other frequent Tarantino collaborators, Christoph Waltz is the only actor to receive two Academy Award nominations, and he won both times. His Oscar for Best Supporting Actor for Inglourious Basterds is particularly memorable, though.

The Oscars’ well-documented history of nominating war movies shows that the majority of nominations and wins have gone to people playing victims and heroes. However, Waltz plays the Nazi commander Hans Landa, but he manages to make the character so despicable, that the Academy had no choice but to give him the win in 2010. The opening scene itself is all the evidence one needs.

9

Gregory Peck As Atticus Finch

To Kill A Mockingbird (1962)

Courtroom dramas have always performed well at the Oscars. The Academy loves nominating performances from courtroom dramas as they often bring out stronger performances than other genres, due to their cinematic similarity to theater. Writing and acting are what differentiate between good legal dramas and legal dramas that are essentially perfect. This is why there are many noteworthy Oscar-winning performances and scripts in the history of the legal drama genre.

Peck’s performance is also considered to have created Hollywood’s greatest movie hero of all time.

However, few of these performances stand out as much as Gregory Peck’s as Atticus Finch in To Kill a Mockingbird. Not only is the film considered a blueprint for later courtroom dramas that it inspired, but Peck’s performance is also considered to have created Hollywood’s greatest movie hero of all time. Finch is a truly aspirational figure, a man who leads by example and refuses to be embittered despite being put on social trial as a lawyer for doing the right thing. Peck’s performance, characterized by expressions of pain and righteousness, continues to inspire actors today.

8

Marlon Brando As Vito Corleone

The Godfather (1972)

It has only happened four times in the history of the awards that an Oscar winner has turned down their Academy Award. Among them, the most recent and most famous instance was in 1973, when Marlon Brando didn’t attend the ceremony in protest of the industry’s poor efforts in terms of representing Native Americans both on and off-screen. Activist Sacheen Littlefeather went in his place to deliver a speech on the cause and reject the Oscar on his behalf.

Since Lily Gladstone lost the Best Actress Academy Award race in 2024, no Native American person has yet won an Oscar for acting.

Irrespective of the controversy it sparked, and the way it exposed the Academy’s and the industry’s atтιтudes towards Native American people, Brando’s lasting legacy also lives on through his unforgettable performance as Don Vito Corleone in The Godfather. While he technically didn’t receive it, his performance won an Oscar and might just be the most famous gangster role to ever win the award or even be nominated for it. His composure, his manner of allowing emotions to flow like a river through him, and his hushed speech – there are many things to love about Brando’s acting in The Godfather.

7

Adrien Brody As Władysław Szpilman

The Pianist (2002)

Adrien Brody now has two Oscars, both of which he won for portraying men who survived the Holocaust. While his latest win for The Brutalist is for portraying a man who may have been inspired by many real people but is technically fictional, Brody’s role in The Pianist is as a real Holocaust survivor, Władysław Szpilman. The film is based on Szpilman’s memoirs of surviving in Warsaw during Germany’s siege of Poland.

Brody’s performance as Szpilman has gone down in history as one of the best war movie performances of all time. The actor is known for his ability to portray despair and kindness through his uniquely emotive eyes, an aspect of his performance buoyed by his expressive body language. Brody’s performances are always pᴀssionate, but the level of hopelessness he brings to life as Szpilman, who still retains his sense of self and his love for music through all his experiences, will bring anyone to the brink of tears.

6

Denzel Washington As Private Trip

Glory (1989)

War movies tend to sacrifice accuracy in battle scenes in favor of cinematically impactful visuals, like explosions and even sensationalized violence at times. So, it always stands out when a film prioritizes accuracy, and among other scenes, Edward Zwick’s Glory is particularly memorable for its portrayal of the fateful Battle of Fort Wagner. Battle is often unfairly glorified or romanticized in films, but Glory strips it of all sensationalism to depict how destructive a battle can be and how gritty the reality is.

With an incredible ensemble cast including Morgan Freeman, Cary Elwes, Matthew Broderick, Andre Braugher, and, of course, Denzel Washington, Glory remains one of the best films about the Civil War. Washington plays Private Trip, one of the volunteer soldiers in one of the earliest black regiments in the history of the country.

His portrayal of Trip depicts both the bravery of the man and the natural fear and anxiety that being a soldier brings with it. Washington won the Oscar for Best Supporting Actor in 1990, just 13 years after his acting debut.

5

Sir Anthony Hopkins As Dr. Hannibal Lecter

The Silence Of The Lambs (1991)

The category for Supporting Actor has existed at the Oscars since 1937 and it aims to recognize supporting roles, which are identified by various criteria, including screen time, point of view, and importance to the progression of the film’s narrative and plot. It is rare for performances with very little screen time to get nominated for a Best Actor Academy Award instead of a Best Supporting Actor Academy Award.

David Niven’s Best Actor Oscar-winning performance in Separate Tables is the only performance to win that category with less screen time than Hopkins’ in The Silence of the Lambs.

So, when Sir Anthony Hopkins was nominated and won the Oscar for Best Actor for his performance as Dr. Hannibal Lecter in The Silence of the Lambs, it came as a shock to many. He only has about 16 minutes of screen time and a total of 25 minutes in scenes, including off-screen time. That is how Dr. Hannibal Lecter became a character who helped reshape movie genre expectations. Sir Anthony Hopkins’ remarkably chilling performance of 16 minutes is enough to make an impression and cement Dr. Lecter’s status as an all-time great villain.

4

Jack Nicholson As Randle Patrick McMurphy

One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest (1975)

Miloš Forman’s One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest‘s Nurse Ratched is among the greatest movie villains of all time. Louise Fletcher won the Best Actress Oscar for her portrayal of the character, alongside Nicholson, who won the Best Actor Oscar for the movie. One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest is the second film to win the Big Five at the Oscars – Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor, Best Actress, and Best Screenplay (Adopted or Original) – a feat it shares with two other films – It Happened One Night (1934), and The Silence of the Lambs (1991).

Nicholson plays McMurphy in the movie, a criminal who fakes insanity so he doesn’t have to go to prison. However, he discovers that the mental insтιтution where he’s housed isn’t better than prison – Nurse Ratched is the equivalent of an abusive prison warden to the inmates. Nicholson’s pᴀssionate performance, balancing the contrasting moods of comedy and tragedy expertly, as the man who unwittingly becomes the leader of the patients at the hospital by standing up to Ratched’s wicked ways, is arguably the actor’s best performance ever.

3

Daniel Day-Lewis As Daniel Plainview

There Will Be Blood (2007)

Only Katharine Hepburn, with four, has won more Oscars for acting in lead roles than Daniel Day-Lewis and Frances McDormand, who both have three. So, it is difficult to pick the best Oscar-winning Daniel Day-Lewis performance, especially between his performances in Lincoln and There Will Be Blood. The veteran actor has an uncanny skill for disappearing into roles, and he truly embodies Lincoln’s inspiring personality as he does Daniel Plainview’s lust for money and power.

Daniel Plainview is an absolutely unhinged movie protagonist who loses his sanity with time, being driven by capitalist greed to depraved extremes. Daniel Day-Lewis delivers a powerhouse performance for the film, which is essentially a character study of a man who starts from innocent roots and eventually descends into despicable depths as he crosses all limits to earn as much as he can. Day-Lewis humanizes him without making him sympathetic, making him pathetic and deranged instead.