The nominations for this year's Academy Awards have finally been announced following delays, with the simmering anticipation for the biggest day in the movie calendar now growing to a gentle boiling tension. Unable to honor everyone, The Academy has the tough choice of taking a year brimming with excellent lead performances and choosing just ten across both categories, with this year's selection one of the strongest in recent memory.
From unapologetic powerhouse turns to performances that made fans hold space, these lead performances provoked all types of emotions in audiences. They come from a wide selection of genres, including comedy, musical, and even horror, a rarity among the Oscars' usual practices. This link is a ranking of every best lead performance nominee at the 2025 Oscars. Several factors will be considered for the ranking, including the performer's versatility, the character's complexity, their role in the movie, and the performance itself, as well as its ability to be engaging and affecting.
10 Sebastian Stan as Donald Trump
'The Apprentice'
When The Apprentice was first announced, many thought that portraying a character as divisive as Donald Trump would be nigh on impossible to get right. Step forward, Sebastian Stan, who took to the role with sheer poise. The movie follows the rise of Trump through the New York real estate scene in the 1970s and 1980s, specifically touching on his whirlwind friendship with attorney Roy Cohn (Jeremy Strong).
Stan's performance as Trump is one of two from an acclaimed year for the MCU alumni, with his other as Edward in A Different Man earning him the Silver Bear for Best Leading Performance at the Berlin International Film Festival and a Golden Globe Award for Best Actor. As Trump, Stan perfectly walks the line between the very real tension that lives at the heart of the man he portrays. Neither a scathing character assassination nor a glorifying appraisal, there's really no other way this portrayal could've been more suitable for a current audience.

The Apprentice
- Release Date
- October 11, 2024
- Cast
- Sebastian Stan, Jeremy Strong, Maria Bakalova, Emily Mitchell, Martin Donovan, Patch Darragh, Stuart Hughes, Eoin Duffy, Chloe Madison, Ben Sullivan, Mark Rendall, Joe Pingue, Catherine McNally, Charlie Carrick, Jim Monaco, Bruce Beaton, Ian D. Clark, Valerie O'Connor, James Madge, Ron Lea, Edie Inksetter, Michael Hough, Robert J. Tavenor, Raechel Fisher, Stefanie Martino, Randy Thomas, Myron Ron Reider, Sharon Wilcox
- Runtime
- 123 Minutes
- Director
- Ali Abbasi
- Writers
- Gabriel Sherman
9 Timothée Chalamet as Bob Dylan
'A Complete Unknown'
The musical biopic is a genre awash with options, with the success of Bohemian Rhapsody truly changing the game forever. In the light of Elvis Presley, Elton John, and even Robbie Williams as a CGI monkey all getting their shot at the musical biopic, A Complete Unknown needed to truly pull out all the stops to impress the Academy. The ace up Searchlight's sleeve was Timothée Chalamet, whose portrayal of Bob Dylan has made him the third-youngest two-time nominee in the Best Actor category.
With no expense spared in this immersive performance, Chalamet offers a truly nuanced look at the man behind the music, as well as putting his voice to the songs for good measure. Never obvious and always looking to capture the essence of the title, Chalamet's performance has left many yearning for more, which is certainly a compliment for a turn that aims to craft a character that oozes A Complete Unknown.

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A Complete Unknown
- Release Date
- December 25, 2024
- Cast
- Timothée Chalamet, Edward Norton, Elle Fanning, Monica Barbaro, Nick Offerman, Boyd Holbrook, P.J. Byrne, Scoot McNairy, Dan Fogler, Will Harrison, Charlie Tahan, Jon Gennari, Norbert Leo Butz
- Runtime
- 140 minutes
- Director
- James Mangold
- Writers
- Jay Cocks, James Mangold
8 Cynthia Erivo as Elphaba Thropp
'Wicked'
There really has been no movie that has quite captured the audience's attention in the past six months. Jon M. Chu's film adaptation of the iconic Broadway show Wicked sees Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande adopt the iconic roles of Elphaba and Glinda to great acclaim. Both have been nominated for Oscars, and both are potential favorites to take their respective crowns.
In the lead role of the Wicked Witch herself, Erivo stuns with a voice of velvet genius and an acting performance to match. Perfectly capturing the true essence of this story of fighting for representation, Erivo never holds back, avoiding nuance to shoot straight to the heart of this rousing tale. Truly, she is gravity-defying.
7 Karla Sofia Gascón as Emilia Pérez
'Emilia Pérez'
The discourse surrounding Emilia Pérez has been mixed at best. The movie's certain critical acclaim—showcased by it earning an astonishing thirteen Academy Award nominations—is at complete odds with the often brutal disassembly of the movie's themes by a global audience that has left the film with a 19% Rotten Tomatoes audience rating. However, one thing is seemingly agreed upon, and that is the terrific central performance of Karla Sofia Gascón as the titular Emilia Pérez.
It first needs to be noted that whatever is made of the movie, for Gascón to become the first openly trans actor ever nominated for an Oscar is a triumph. Whether or not the origin of this success is appreciated by the public, this is a definite move in the right direction for the Academy. Her many real-life controversies notwithstanding, Gascón's powerful, touching performance deserves to be celebrated, especially considering some of the film's more haphazard writing.

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Emilia Perez
- Release Date
- November 13, 2024
- Cast
- Karla Sofía Gascón, Zoe Saldana, Selena Gomez, Adriana Paz, Edgar Ramirez, Mark Ivanir, Eduardo Aladro, Emiliano Edmundo Hasan Jalil, James Gerard, Eric Geynes, Agathe Bokja, Chun-Ting Lin, Stéphane Ly-Cuong, Line Phé, Pascal Toussirot, Karla Lazo
- Runtime
- 130 Minutes
- Director
- Jacques Audiard
- Writers
- Jacques Audiard, Thomas Bidegain, Léa Mysius
6 Ralph Fiennes as Cardinal Thomas Lawrence
'Conclave'
Described by many as "Gossip Girl set in the Vatican," Conclave has become a quiet favorite to pick up a few awards at this year's Oscars. Chief perhaps among them—especially considering director Edward Berger's snub —is Ralph Fiennes' portrayal of Cardinal Thomas Lawrence, the man at the heart of the choice to elect the new Pope following the sudden death of the former.
Shockingly, Fiennes has never won an Academy Award. However, a win for the man behind Voldermort would be anything but a legacy choice, with this subdued, observational central performance worthy of just as much praise as the many loud turns also receiving notoriety at this year's ceremony. A studied performance with the grace of his decades of experience, Conclave wouldn't be the same without Fiennes, and neither would this year's Best Actor category.

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Conclave
- Release Date
- October 25, 2024
- Cast
- Ralph Fiennes, Stanley Tucci, John Lithgow, Isabella Rossellini, Lucian Msamati, Carlos Diehz, Sergio Castellitto, Brian F. O'Byrne, Merab Ninidze, Jacek Koman, Rony Kramer, Joseph Mydell
- Runtime
- 120 Minutes
- Director
- Edward Berger
- Writers
- Peter Straughan, Robert Harris
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