AwardsWatch Forums’ 50 Favourite Performances of 2017

Erik Anderson February 14, 2018

For the last five years, the AwardsWatch forums have compiled their 50 Favourite Performances of the year and the results for 2017 are in. Once we enter the top 20 it’s impressive how many performances showed up that didn’t earn #1 mentions but were on so many ballots, and still had a high placement on those ballots, earned such high rankings. Be prepared for some shocking placements and snubs and huge surprises in both the bottom and top half of the list, including some Oscar frontrunners not only out of the top 10 but not on the list at all. In total, of the 20 Oscar-nominated performances, seven did not earn a place on the list. One Oscar category found all five nominees in our top 50.

A huge thanks to AW forum members alilou (Ali Benz) for organizing the entire voting process and ballot tabulation and olivivien for his fantastic graphics.

The balloting took place over three phases: a longlist of 147 performances, a final 50 shortlist, then from that list voters ranked their top 15 choices to achieve the final placements.

Here are some superlatives:

– 111 ballots were received (99 in 2016)
– 20 male and 30 female performances made it to the final list (21 vs 29 in 2016)
– 46 performances received #1 placement (44 in 2016)

Before we begin, here are the top 10 lists from 2013-2016.

AW’s 50 Favourite Performances of 2016
1. Isabelle Huppert, Elle
2. Casey Affleck, Manchester by the Sea
3. Amy Adams, Arrival
4. Sandra Hüller, Toni Erdmann
5. Annette Bening, 20th Century Women
6. Isabelle Huppert, Things to Come
7. Sonia Braga, Aquarius
8. Trevante Rhodes, Moonlight
9. Natalie Portman, Jackie
10. Ashton Sanders, Moonlight

AW’s 50 Favourite Performances of 2015
1. Rooney Mara, Carol
2. Cate Blanchett, Carol
3. Charlotte Rampling, 45 Years
4. Saoirse Ronan, Brooklyn
5. Oscar Isaac, Ex Machina
6. Charlize Theron, Mad Max: Fury Road
7. Nina Hoss, Phoenix
8. Juliette Binoche, Clouds of Sils Maria
9. Emory Cohen, Brooklyn
10. Brie Larson, Room

AW’s 50 Favourite Performances of 2014
1. Ralph Fiennes, The Grand Budapest Hotel
2. Marion Cotillard, Two Days One Night
3. Julianne Moore, Still Alice
4. Jake Gyllenhaal, Nightcrawler
5. Gugu Mbatha-Raw, Beyond the Lights
6. Julianne Moore, Maps to the Stars
7. Marion Cotillard, The Immigrant
8. Rosamund Pike, Gone Girl
9. Patricia Arquette, Boyhood
10. Essie Davis, The Babadook

AW’s 50 Favourite Performances of 2013
1. Cate Blanchett, Blue Jasmine
2. Leonardo DiCaprio, The Wolf of Wall Street
3. Adele Exarchopoulos, Blue is the Warmest Color
4. Chiwetel Ejiofor, 12 Years a Slave
5. Suzanne Clement, Laurence Anyways
6. Greta Gerwig, Frances Ha
7. Juliette Binoche, Camille Claudel 1915
8. James Franco, Spring Breakers
9. Mads Mikkelsen, The Hunt
10. Brie Larson, Short Term 12

THE 2017 LIST…50-41

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Erik Anderson

Erik Anderson is the founder/owner and Editor-in-Chief of AwardsWatch and has always loved all things Oscar, having watched the Academy Awards since he was in single digits; making lists, rankings and predictions throughout the show. This led him down the path to obsessing about awards. Much later, he found himself in film school and the film forums of GoldDerby, and then migrated over to the former Oscarwatch (now AwardsDaily), before breaking off to create AwardsWatch in 2013.

He is a Rotten Tomatoes-approved critic, accredited by the Cannes Film Festival, Telluride Film Festival, Toronto International Film Festival and more, is a member of the International Cinephile Society (ICS), The Society of LGBTQ Entertainment Critics (GALECA), Hollywood Critics Association (HCA) and the International Press Academy. Among his many achieved goals with AwardsWatch, he has given a platform to underrepresented writers and critics and supplied them with access to film festivals and the industry and calls the Bay Area his home where he lives with his husband and son.