Now that 2025 is over, it means that the awards season is now active.
Before long, we’ll learn which performers will compete for Best Actor or Best Actress at the Oscars and other ceremonies.
In the meantime, Watch With Us is ahead of the curve because we’ve already picked the five best movie performances of 2025.
Two of the performers listed below still have their films in theaters, if you want to see them demonstrate their talent on the big screen.
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7. Josh O’Connor as J.B. Mooney in ‘The Mastermind’
Josh O’Connor starred in four movies in 2025, and you can make a good case for any of them that the Challengers actor gave one of the best performances of the year. I have a slight preference for his subtle work in The Mastermind, Kelly Reichardt‘s unconventional heist movie that’s more of a character study of an ordinary man who is willing to commit a few crimes to escape his hum-drum life.
The beauty of O’Connor’s performance is that he doesn’t make J.B. someone who stands out from the crowd. With his worn-out sweaters and fuzzy beard, his unemployed carpenter is unrelentingly mediocre, which makes his attempts to steal valuable paintings at his local museum all the more comical — and sad. J.B. thinks he’s a big shot by pulling off the heist, but as the film progresses, you realize just how wrong he is. O’Connor is quickly becoming one of our finest actors, and his work in The Mastermind is further proof of that.
The Mastermind is streaming on Mubi.
6. Rose Byrne as Linda in ‘If I Had Legs I’d Kick You’
Some people were surprised by all the accolades Rose Byrne received for her revelatory performance in If I Had Legs I’d Kick You, but those who have followed the Bridesmaids actresses’ career know she’s been quietly killing it for nearly two decades now. She’s never been better than in Mary Bronstein’s unusually tense drama about a mother who is pushed beyond her breaking point. With an absent husband and a daughter who needs round-the-clock care, Linda is left to solve a seemingly unending parade of problems that don’t have any easy solutions.
Linda could’ve easily come off as irritating or worse, a monster, but Byrne makes you understand why she’s unraveling without passing judgment. It’s such a raw, desperate performance that it made me look away at times. But I always came back, and that’s due to Byrne, who doesn’t sugarcoat her character’s complicated layers. Linda is complicated and, at times, exasperating, but she’s also someone who needs to catch a goddamn break, and Byrne makes her one of the most fascinating fictional women I encountered in 2025.
If I Had Legs I’d Kick You is available to rent on Prime Video.
5. Joel Edgerton as Robert Granier in ‘Train Dreams’
Joel Edgerton has come a long way from playing the orc cop in Netflix’s Bright back in 2017. Not even a decade later, Edgerton has to be on the short list for Best Actor nominees for his turn as Robert Granier, a railway worker and family man in Train Dreams. Edgerton looks and feels like he stepped out of another era for this story of the American frontier and the hardships and tragedy that go with it.
If an actor’s greatest asset is their face, then Edgerton’s is a formidable weapon that can convey his thoughts without words, his sorrow without tears and the aching of a heart that calls out to his loved ones. It’s an emotionally affecting performance that may move Edgerton closer to Hollywood’s A-list, and it will be a shock if he comes away from awards season empty-handed.
Train Dreams is streaming on Netflix.
4. Timothée Chalamet as Marty Mauser in ‘Marty Supreme’
Timothée Chalamet is a two-time Oscar nominee for Best Actor, and he just might go for the hat trick for his turn in Marty Supreme. Chalamet plays Marty Mauser, a character loosely based on table tennis champion Marty Reisman. In the 1950s, Marty is a dreamer who wants to become a professional table tennis player at the expense of everything else in his life.
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Marty does some pretty underhanded and even unethical things in the pursuit of his dream. It’s a testament to Chalamet’s natural charisma that none of this alienates Marty from the audience. He’s got the charm of a real player, in every sense of the word. Chalamet also gives Marty unchecked ambition that lets him keep going when other men would have given up on their dreams and themselves.
Marty Supreme is playing in theaters.
3. Amy Madigan as Aunt Gladys in ‘Weapons’
Amy Madigan‘s Aunt Gladys is one of the most important characters in Weapons, and we can’t explain her role in this horror flick without giving away some surprises. She is one of the breakout performers in that film, and director Zach Cregger has hinted that there may be an Aunt Gladys prequel movie in the works.
One thing we can say about Gladys is that the audience is never sure if she’s showing any aspect of who she really is. We do get to see Gladys without her wig or her makeup, and she may really be dying as she claims. But before anyone feels any sympathy for this woman, she does some unforgivably evil things. That’s what makes Gladys so terrifying: she has no problem letting innocent people get hurt and die as long as her agenda is met.
Weapons is streaming on HBO Max.
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2. Michael B. Jordan as the Smokestack Twins in ‘Sinners’
Michael B. Jordan has yet to earn an Oscar nomination, and horror flicks like Sinners aren’t usually the starring vehicles that could change that. However, director Ryan Coogler rewrote the rules with this intense horror thriller about vampires preying on a juke joint in 1932.
Jordan plays the Smokestack twins, Elijah “Smoke” Moore and Elias “Stack” Moore. The illusion of the twins is so convincing that it’s easy to forget that they’re both portrayed by the same man. Each of the twins is given their own unique persona by Jordan, and before the end of the movie, those differences are even more pronounced. We’re not going to say which brother gets the closing line of the film, but it’s devastatingly delivered in a way that reframes the entire movie.
Sinners is streaming on HBO Max.
1. Jessie Buckley as Agnes Shakespeare in ‘Hamnet’
Hamnet was named for Hamnet Shakespeare (Jacobi Jupe), the young son of William Shakespeare (Paul Mescal). Both of the male Shakespeares are important to the movie, but it’s really about Hamnet’s mother and William’s wife, Agnes Shakespeare (Jessie Buckley). This might be the role of Buckley’s life, and she delivers the most riveting performance of the year.
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Buckley excels at using her body and face to communicate Agnes’ emotions and state of mind. There’s even a touch of the supernatural about her way of peaking into the future. But she’s neither a witch nor a magician. She’s just a woman whose faith has been shattered by a senseless tragedy, and the way she finds herself again is both unexpected and yet obvious in retrospect. This film lives and breathes on the strength of Buckley’s performance, and she absolutely nailed it. If she doesn’t win Best Actress at this year’s Academy Awards, it’ll be an upset.
Hamnet is playing in theaters.
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