AwardsWatch’s 50 Favorite Performances of 2013

Yeah, it’s March but AwardsWatch has another 2013 list! It’s our Favorite Performances of 2013 and it was a hard fought, nail-biter with Oscar nominees, a shocking Oscar-winning snub, great non-English language film performances and a few other surprises. Special thanks to Vincent Teo for organizing the tournament and tabulation of the ballots and Matthew Kelley Rand for the graphics. To start off, here are some interesting trivia/statistics about this year’s list:

• 74 ballots were received during this round of voting, 9 more than the number received for determining the shortlist.
• Despite the use of the unranked 5 spots on the list, there are still numerous ties in the list.
• This is a very consensus-heavy list, especially on the Top 10. The Top 15 performances have over 50% of the total points, and the Top 10 performances have over 40% of the total points.
• Unsurprisingly, AW proves to be way more enamored with actresses and their actressing, with the number of female performances appearing on this list to their male counterparts being 27 to 23.
• Despite 5 performers having 2 of their performances appearing on the shortlist, none of them had both their shortlisted performances make the Top 50. One of them unfortunately had both performances eliminated during this round of voting.
• 2 films had 4 performances each make the Top 50.
• 4 Oscar-nominated performances failed to make the shortlist. Add 1 more to the list for those that did not make the Top 50.
• The #1 performance has the most passion amongst all performances, appearing at the #1 spot on 14 (out of the 74) ballots received. The #1 performance also had the most widespread support, appearing on 41 (out of the 74) ballots.

Without further ado, the list:

(A 3-way tie for #48)

(A 2-way tie for #43)

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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.

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