has become a major awards contender - a most pleasing development.
And look, he deserves it. (Well, apart from the question of whether the almost runner-up position in what often feels like a two-person show is truly a "supporting" role.) But he couldn't be the only one who stood out for his whole year of 2024 with a worthwhile performance, could he?
The Brutalist, Emilia Pérez and Shōgun win at the Golden Globes
No, he couldn't have, as you get dozens of excellent performances every year, only a small number of which typically receive a series of awards, year after year. So, in the spirit of discovery and rediscovery that underpins The Substance, here are a dozen plus performances, from both emerging and established talents, which, despite not being recognised by major awarding bodies or critics' groups, deserve to be regarded as among the year's best performances as Oscar voting begins. They will almost certainly not be among those nominees, who will be announced on 19 January, but if more voters were to take a closer look, perhaps they might be.
Actually, alternatively, because Netflix didn't bother to give it an awards-qualifying theatrical release. However, that doesn't excuse Pierre's absence from the various awards bodies with less rigorous theatrical-release requirements.
Joan Chen, Didi
A poignant coming-of-age drama about a 13-year-old boy growing up in California. The boy's de facto single mother, played by Chen, is his husband, who has moved back to Taiwan to support the family. The mother, an artist in her own right, may have sacrificed her potential due to her family commitments. Chen, who has mainly appeared in fewer American films since the 1990s, gives a nuanced performance here, skillfully conveying the complexity of her character, neither overly idealised nor overly harsh.
Juliette Gariépy , Red Rooms
This causes the same sense of unease as the audience tries to figure out what she's up to: disturbing, yet impossible to take your eyes off. Gariépy is a key reason this strategy is so successful, playing the character's obsessions close to her chest with a constant, thoroughly unsettling commitment that eventually mirrors our own digital-world preoccupations and the psychological strain they can cause even when we think we're in control. Red Rooms is a horror movie that starts with the precision of a procedural, and Gariépy's chilling performance eventually brings both genres into one.
Chris Hemsworth Furiosa: A Mad Max Story
Playing opposite Furiosa, a vengeful fighter, Dementus, an incompetent warlord and, in his own mad story, a hero, is set on a collision course. This narrative leads to a western-style showdown, where Hemsworth gets to showcase a wide range of emotions - from over-the-top comedy to desperation, sadness, and even a rare, hard-won cynicism born from post-apocalyptic experience. Prior to this intense confrontation, Hemsworth has a clear laugh, pretending to be a villain by wearing a prosthetic nose and riding a dusty red cloak. Interestingly, even though Furiosa strips him of his delusions, his cartoonish theatrics make him more intriguing.
Josh Hartnett, Trap
The late 1990s and early 2000s were full of trendsetters-of-the-moment who didn't quite make it, and after spending more than a decade largely out of the spotlight, it seemed like Josh Hartnett was just another good-looking lad who didn't quite have what it took to be a leading man. It's almost poetic, then, that he solidified his 2020s comeback by playing a bit of an awkward, well-meaning dad – at least on first appearances. Hartnett's Cooper looks like he's just taking his daughter to a highly sought-after pop concert as a treat for her excellent school report; he's actually a serial killer who thinks the arena is a trap, and believes an operation is about to be launched against him at the end of the show.
It's a performance unencumbered by gimmicks, showcasing Hartnett's considerable skills - and exposing him as a rather talented, if unconventional, leading man.
Adam Pearson , A Different Man
, playing Oswald, a man entirely at ease with himself, only serves to further unsettle and haunt Stan's Edward, who undergoes a revolutionary treatment to remove the growths that previously disfigured his face, now discovering that his self-dislike might run far deeper than physical appearance.
By all accounts, Pearson is a sociable person in real life as well, so it seems as though he is simply being himself here – but his friendly manner has just the right balance of ambiguous menace, with a presence that enables the audience to observe both his warmth and the threat that bothers Edward's insecurities.
Aaron Pierre , Rebel Ridge
In the film's opening scene, Terry is violently attacked, apprehended and robbed by two policemen, and writer-director Jeremy Saulnier simply needs to point the camera at Pierre's face to reveal the full extent of Terry's intense emotions during this ordeal (which are even more complex than the stark injustice of the events themselves). Put simply, Pierre's physical presence and performance make a strong impression even before he begins to fight back, which he does in a non-lethal variation on the first Rambo film. In all, Pierre makes a top-notch action hero: swift, agile, powerful and great fun to watch. Moreover, as Terry unleashes his combat skills, Pierre ensures that there is a genuine, vulnerable and conflicted human being beneath the surface of his defiant rage. This aligns perfectly with Pierre's inherent charisma as a movie star and the meticulous way he brings this character to life.
Aubrey Plaza, Megalopolis, and Margaret Qualley , Drive-Away Dolls
Her unconventional rhythms, a mix of 1960s seductress and 1940s nightclub singer, reflect Coppola's appreciation for a wide range of cinematic influences and add a playful edge to Megalopolis, preventing it from becoming too serious.
An affectionate send-up of exploitation movies, the coup de grâce of Margaret Qualley's chatty and eccentrically accented performance as a perpetually randy young lesbian lies in how well it echoes the Coen brothers' tone, even when filtered through a 1999 setting. She received more attention as the ill-fated ingenue created by The Pages, but Dolls gives her the benefit of being both amusing yet genuinely sexy.
Tilda Swinton, Problemista
A director with a background in doing sketches seems like they might be setting themselves up for a mess – or, worst case, a pretentious mess. However, Elizabeth, the artistic outsider who's trying to keep her late husband's work going with the help of her new assistant Alejandro (which was also written and directed by Julio Torres), is unexpectedly familiar - someone who is short-tempered, prone to mood swings, and often needy to the point of being questioning, though not always to the point of question-worthiness. The twist is how the film begins to understand, and partly justify, her questioning and occasionally effective approach to life. Tilda Swinton plays Elizabeth as someone who's both discreet and straightforward in her journey from being comical to intimidating to a mix of heartbreaking and comical to, ultimately, an ambitious sort of majesty - without changing who she fundamentally is, a difficult person.
"Scene-stealers", High School drama, Miss America Contestants
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It's only right that a fantastic year for horror acting concluded with Lily-Rose Depp delivering a performance of raw, possessing fervour, one Robert Eggers was keen to point out was achieved without the use of digital trickery to enhance her movements - although she does hover in one scene, so that's a notable exception. You could compile an entire shortlist by picking solely from this excellent group of nominees.
