TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - As the Academy Awards approaches, conversations surrounding Oscar Best Actors inevitably return to the forefront of Hollywood discourse. The prestigious category has long celebrated performers whose transformative portrayals transcend the boundaries of the silver screen, turning remarkable roles into enduring cinematic legacies.
In honor of the upcoming Oscars ceremony, we revisit the most remarkable Best Actor winners of the 21st century, ranked by the lasting resonance of their performances.
Ranking Oscar Best Actors in 21st Century
The 2026 Oscar nomination list is packed with high-paying big-screen moguls, further fueling the anticipation for the final night on Sunday. Their formidable presence also invites a retrospective look at the Academy's best actors for the past 25 years.
From A-listers Cillian Murphy and Leonardo Di Caprio to crowd favorite Joaquin Phoenix, here are the best of all according to Rolling Stones and USA Today.
10. Joaquin Phoenix – Joker (2020)
In 2019, Phoenix underwent a haunting transformation, charting the descent of a troubled stand-up comedian into Gotham’s infamous killer clown. His most unsettling character yet, Joker, not only earned him the Academy Award for Best Actor but also reaffirmed Phoenix’s reputation as one of Hollywood’s most fearless and idiosyncratic talents. While comparisons to Heath Ledger’s legendary Joker were inevitable, Phoenix carved out a striking interpretation defined by raw vulnerability and psychological turmoil.
9. Cillian Murphy – Oppenheimer (2024)
The 2024 summertime was iconic for giving cinephiles the cultural phenomenon of the Barbie and Oppenheimer double-feature experience. Riding the wave, Cillian Murphy commanded attention through his portrayal of the World War II era physicist. With piercing intensity and quiet authority, Murphy inevitably ranks among the top Oscar best actors in the 21st century.
8. Anthony Hopkins – The Fathers (2021)
Portraying an elderly man who gradually lost his grasp on reality due to Alzheimer’s disease, Anthony Hopkins in The Fathers captures the confusion, frustration, and quiet terror of a once-independent man confronting the fragility of memory. Though coming almost 3 decades later, his second Oscar best actor trophy was an extraordinary marvel for his age.
7. Casey Affleck – Manchester by the Sea (2017)
Highly regarded among Oscar best actor list, Casey Affleck anchored the role of a distressed handyman with restrained intensity and emotional depth. Rather than relying on grand theatrics, his quietly devastating performance marked one of the most poignant deliverances on the big screen of the decade.
6. Denzel Washington – Training Day (2002)
Few performances in modern crime cinema radiate the same volatile charisma as Denzel Washington’s Alonzo Harris in Training Day. Throughout the film’s tense odyssey across Los Angeles, Washington crafts a character whose authority feels both captivating and deeply unsettling. It's no wonder the detective won the hearts of both the Academy's voters and the cinephiles.
5. Adrien Brody – The Brutalist (2025)
Nearly a quarter-century after his first Oscar triumph, Adrien Brody reasserts his dramatic prowess with a riveting portrayal of László Tóth. As a Holocaust survivor attempting to reclaim both his career and dignity in America, Brody's character explored an unsettling combination of exile, resilience, and the fragile promise of reinvention. Thanks to this role, he reserves a place among the top ten Oscar best actors.
4. Russell Crowe – Gladiator (2001)
Russell Crowe's enduring status as one of Hollywood’s defining action heroes of the modern era is hard to replace. Thrust into the brutal world of gladiatorial combat, he rises through sheer valor and unyielding resolve. Crowe’s formidable presence in Gladiator perfectly lends the epic both spectacle and soul.
3. Daniel-Day Lewis – Lincoln (2013)
Steven Spielberg’s Lincoln hinges entirely on the presence of Daniel Day-Lewis, and the actor rises to the challenge with extraordinary precision. Set during the final months of the Civil War, the film follows the president’s relentless campaign to pass the 13th Amendment and abolish slavery. In a predictable outcome, the role ultimately secured Day-Lewis his unprecedented third Oscar best actor.
2. Philip Seymour Hoffman – Capote (2006)
Capturing the writer’s high-pitched voice, eccentric personality, and intense curiosity, Philip Seymour Hoffman proved his worth as an acting genius. His nuanced performance makes the audience feel sympathy for a deeply flawed character who is both ambitious and manipulative.
1. Daniel-Day Lewis – There Will be Blood (2008)
For someone as talented as Daniel-Day Lewis, two entries in the ranking of Oscar best actors is far from being unattainable. His performance in the movie is unforgettably powerful, embodying the darker side of American capitalism. Even after almost two decades, Daniel-Day Lewis still stands a commanding figure among the A-listers.
For years, the legacy of the Oscar Best Actor category lies in performances that linger long after the awards are handed out. As a new generation of contenders emerges, the bar set by these outstanding names remains as formidable as ever.
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