Every month, our contributors submit lists of ten films fitting certain topics. Each month, we feature an alphabetical list of films along with commentary explaining our selections. There will also be an itemized list at the end of each of our individual selections.

As a companion to Our Favorite Actors list last month, we’ve put together a list of our favorite actresses. This list includes actresses born in every decade from the 1890s to the 1990s, showcasing multiple generations of great or intriguing actresses that have piqued our fancies over the years. Normally, we post our article on the first of the month. However, certain unexpected delays prevented it from going live. We are live today!

Although we all could have selected a treasure trove of legendary actresses, our lists are spread out between well known actresses of the Golden Age to modern thespians. One actress is a favorite to all: Ingrid Bergman. Appearing on all four lists, the three-time Oscar winner shows she was well loved among all types of cineastes. Dame Maggie Smith made the next most appearances, showing up on three lists while Katharine Hepburn, Deborah Kerr, Julianne Moore, and Meryl Streep each showed up on two lists.

After the break, dig into our introductions and follow that by reading about each film.

The Introductions

Wesley Lovell: As with our Favorite Actors poll last month, my focus was on finding actresses whose work was always on my radar to watch. Actresses whose every performance, even in the worst of films, is something I want to see. There are myriad great actresses whose work is beyond the pale. I haven’t recognized many of them, but I have recognized actors who, for the larger part, are among the best. The list of actresses that didn’t make my list but could have is long, including Cate Blanchett, Bette Davis, Catherine Deneuve, Tilda Swinton, Whoopi Goldberg, and many more.
Peter J. Patrick: As with my list of ten favorite actors, limiting favorite actresses to a list of ten is tough, but those I’ve listed were the most fascinating to me on and off the screen. Six of them came to prominence in the 1930s and remained in demand until their deaths four to seven decades later. One emerged in the 1940s, one in 1950s, one in the 1960s, and one in the 1970s. The other three are still alive and still in demand. All of them were equally adept at comedy and drama and they all sang at least one time in their careers, although some of them had to be dubbed. They are all thoroughly watchable today in just about anything they ever did.
Tripp Burton: I am a bit embarrassed by my list. That is mostly because I felt that in order to be a favorite, I had to have sought out a lot of their films and been versed in their filmography. I kept trying to find a way to get more classic Hollywood names on here, as well as some foreign actresses, but I realized that for all of my favorites I hadn’t seen some of their most important roles. It made my list of films to see grow quite a bit. So these are the actresses whose films I have gone out of my way to see in most everything they’ve done, and I promise that I will try to do the same with some old favorites too. Like my actors list, I’ve included five performances [with one exception] from each actress; not necessarily their best, but a collection that shows all the sides that make them as memorable as they are.
Thomas LaTourrette: There were seven actresses that immediately popped to mind when this was assigned for us to do. And they stayed on the list the entire time. After that I seemingly had about 30 finalists for the last three spots. I eventually ended up with a list that was part classic Hollywood, and a majority that are still working now. Six are British and one Swedish, with only three Americans on the list. I noticed that my list of actors had also skewed towards the Brits. Both lists have older people than I realized going in, with only three of the actresses being under 60 and none under 40. Even having turned in the list, I am still second guessing myself, wondering if I should have included Bette Davis or Cate Blanchett instead of Deborah Kerr, but I guess that is the nature of the beast.

Amy Adams (1974-)

Commentary By Thomas La Tourrette – There is a reason that she has the most nominations before the age of 40. She has proven that she can handle most any role. From the soulful chatterbox of Junebug to the practically perfect Disney princess of Enchanted, she showed a lot of early range. She was a great screwball comedienne in the overlooked Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day. Her serious side came out again in Doubt, The Master, and The Fighter. American Hustle and Big Eyes cemented her arrival as an actress that can pull off any part. I eagerly look forward to finding out what else she will do, and hope she doesn’t get too sidetracked by playing Lois Lane. Hopefully she will find a few more movies worthy of her talent soon and will be back in the Oscar race.

Joan Allen (1956-)

Commentary By Tripp Burton – A celebrated stage actress before becoming one of the most reliable character actresses in Hollywood, Joan Allen has a quiet power to her that radiates off the screen. Whether silently standing in support, or loudly carrying a film on her shoulders, Allen is an actress never afraid of silence and filling every moment on screen with restraint and gravitas. I love her best as the quiet matriarch, but she has proven she can also be funny and scary just as well. In the past decade we haven’t seen as much from her as we should have, but every time her name comes on in the credits you know that at least her part of the film will be well worth watching. Favorite performances: Manhunter, Nixon, Pleasantville, The Crucible, The Upside of Anger.

Angela Bassett (1958- )

Commentary By Wesley Lovell – I have been more familiar with her TV work than her film work, but in either medium, she’s a quintessential actress. The depth of character and personality she brings to each role are superb. I have yet to see a production where she didn’t impress me. Whether it’s Passion Fish or What’s Love Got to Do With It or even a simple line of dialogue at the end of Contact, she is one of the finest actresses working today, no question.

Kathy Bates (1948-)

Commentary By Wesley Lovell – I first came to know Bates in her role as Annie Wilkes in Misery. As a longtime Stephen King fan (I was 15 at the time), I was quite interested in the latest horror adaptation. I was not disappointed. While it diverged quite a bit from the book, it was still a fantastic film and that’s because of Bates’ performance. Her Oscar win is one of my all-time favorite selections. The next film I saw her in, Fried Green Tomatoes, cemented my appreciation for her work and then Dolores Claiborne was just icing on the cake. Her strength as a comedian (evinced in her cameo in Rat Race) and as a dramatic actress are undeniable and that’s why she’s one of my favorites.

Ingrid Bergman (1915-1982)

Commentary By Wesley Lovell – The Swedes lost a great actress when Bergman moved to Hollywood and began one of the most successful Hollywood careers in history. Casablanca made her into a star and anyone who’s anyone knows her from that film. However, it was her continued work in films like Gaslight, Spellbound, Notorious, and Autumn Sonata that will remain among my favorite screen performances of hers. Even her Oscar winning role as the meek maid in Murder on the Orient Express stands head-and-shoulders above her peers. Grace, charm, and talent. That’s why she was a success.

Commentary By Peter J. Patrick – Ingrid Bergman was brought to Hollywood in 1939 to remake her hit Swedish film Intermezzo and in a few short years became one the town’s biggest stars in such classics as Casablanca, The Bells of St. Mary’s, and Notorious before her foray into Italian cinema in 1949 and her return to return to Hollywood glory seven years later with Anastasia or, as she put it, “I’ve gone from saint to whore and back to saint again, all in one lifetime.” With three Oscars in hand, her last big screen performance in Autumn Sonata was one of her best.

Commentary By Tripp Burton – The only classic film actress I’ve included on my list, mostly because she was one of the first I discovered and sought out completely. Casablanca was one of the first old Hollywood films I saw, and I was immediately struck by Bergman: so gorgeous, intelligent, endearing, and calculated all at the same time. She carried these traits with her throughout her career. Whether speaking English or Swedish, she brought a warmth and intelligence to every character she played, never relying on her gravitas or looks to carry her anywhere. Favorite performances: Casablanca, Gaslight, Notorious, Europa ‘51, Autumn Sonata.

Commentary By Thomas La Tourrette – Although a triple Oscar winner, Ingrid will probably always be remembered as the soulful Ilsa from Casablanca. If that had been the only thing she had done, that would be enough. But she had a career that lasted almost a half century, from her native Sweden to a long lasting Hollywood career. Casablanca, Gaslight, and Spellbound had earned her a major spot in Hollywood film lore before she left her husband for Italian director Roberto Rossellini. The ensuing scandal might have destroyed a lesser talent, but she did come back. Her return to Hollywood in Anastasia brought her a second Oscar and forgiveness. That may have been her last great film, but a third Oscar for Murder on the Orient Express, another nomination for Autumn Sonata, and an Emmy for playing Golda Meir showed that she still had a lot left in her.

Bette Davis (1908-1989)

Commentary By Peter J. Patrick – Bette Davis used grit and determination to become a star largely of her own making in 1934’s Of Human Bondage, followed by one legendary film after another including Jezebel, Now, Voyager, All About Eve, and What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? through decades of changing tastes and styles. A walking, breathing exemplification of her own bon mot, “old age is no place for sissies,” the two-time Oscar winner soldiered on post-stroke to give us one more screen gem with The Whales of August co-starring fellow legends Lillian Gish, Ann Sothern, and Vincent Price.

Judi Dench (1934-)

Commentary By Thomas La Tourrette – Dame Judi may have come late to the movies, but she has also racked up the most Oscar nominations since the age of 60 of anyone. She had small roles in A Room with a View, Henry V, and GoldenEye, but also made them memorable. Playing back-to-back queens in succeeding years, first Victoria and then Elizabeth I really put her on the map, including one Oscar and a second nomination. Since then she has had a series of starring roles and five more Oscar noms. She seems to worry that she will stop being offered parts, but when you are as good as she is, roles as diverse as Iris, Notes on a Scandal, and Philomena, you know that she should be around for as long as she wants to keep acting.

Irene Dunne (1898-1990)

Commentary By Peter J. Patrick – Irene Dunne first came to prominence as Magnolia in the original touring version of Show Boat before her foray into films which netted her five Oscar nominations from 1931-1948. She retired from the screen in 1953 and was largely forgotten by the general public until the 1970s when the films she starred in, suppressed because they had almost all been remade, started showing up regularly in revival houses and later on DVD. Among them were the likes of The Awful Truth, Love Affair, The White Cliffs of Dover, Anna and the King of Siam, and I Remember Mama.

Elle Fanning (1998-)

Commentary By Wesley Lovell – Few young actresses have shown the range and talent that Fanning has in her 15-year career. For an actress barely 18 years of age, that’s no small feat. She appeared in a number of films in the early ’00s, but it wasn’t until Babel in 2006 that her successes really started to mount. In films like The Nines, Reservation Road, Phoebe in Wonderland, and Somewhere, all before the age of 12, she outclassed her more famous sister Dakota by leagues. This was an undeniable talent unparalleled among child actresses. Phoebe alone should have earned her an Oscar nomination.

Jane Fonda (1937-)

Commentary By Peter J. Patrick – Jane Fonda is the only second-generation superstar whose career rivaled that of her parent. Henry Fonda’s daughter started slowly in 1960’s forgettable Tall Story, but by the end of the decade had her first Oscar nomination for They Shoot Horses, Don’t They? and in the next decade won two Oscars for Klute and Coming Home before her father won his own for On Golden Pond in which she co-starred. After years of resting on her laurels she came back as strong as ever, particularly in TV’s Grace and Frankie opposite Lily Tomlin.

Jodie Foster (1962-)

Commentary By Wesley Lovell – Another young actress who made a quick impression was Foster. At the age of 14, her Oscar-nominated performance in Taxi Driver is one of the screen’s finest for a young actress. While the a lot of her post-Taxi Driver output isn’t great, her Oscar win in 1988 for The Accused and second win in 1991 for The Silence of the Lambs were some of the best of her career. Nell, Contact, and even Flightplan showed a charismatic fierceness that has helped propel her career for four decades. She definitely needs to do more work in front of the camera.

Janet Gaynor (1906-1984)

Commentary By Wesley Lovell – A broad career as a silent actress of only two years brought the sweetly empowering Gaynor to the public attention and culminated in the first ever Oscar win for Best Actress, a victory she won for three roles: Seventh Heaven, Street Angel, and for one of the silent era’s absolute best performances in Sunrise. That film, which I saw in college as a film student, remains one of my favorite films, frequently ranking at the top of my list. Its successes are entirely thanks to Gaynor’s anchoring performance. While she had a stellar and bountiful career throughout the early sound era, her popular performance in A Star Is Born was the beginning of the unfortunate end. She appeared in only two more films before taking a two-decade hiatus. She re-appeared briefly in the 1950s on television and a single theatrical picture before disappearing for another two decades with her final appearance in an episode of Love Boat in 1981.

Anne Hathaway (1982-)

Commentary By Tripp Burton – Anne Hathaway could have very easily skated by with a respectable career of flashing her smile in romantic comedies. It is one of the best smiles in Hollywood, and she is wonderful at giving even the lightest films a graceful touch. Even in her lightest fare, though, Hathaway always gave the impression that she wanted to dig deeper. She has taken risk after risk, choosing interesting films that show promise even if they don’t succeed, and you can never fault her for not giving something her all. She has grown into one of our most interesting movie stars, finding new material and turning over every bit of herself, emotionally, mentally, and physically, into telling stories they way they should be told. Favorite performances: Brokeback Mountain, The Devil Wears Prada, Rachel Getting Married, Love and Other Drugs, Les Misérables.

Katharine Hepburn (1907-2003)

Commentary By Peter J. Patrick – Katharine Hepburn made her film debut opposite John Barrymore in the 1932 classic A Bill of Divorcement and won her first Oscar for the following year’s Morning Glory. One of the most versatile of actresses, she could play just about anything and did in such classics as Bringing Up Baby, The Philadelphia Story, Adam’s Rib, The African Queen, Summertime, Long Day’s Journey Into Night, The Lion in Winter, and On Golden Pond, winning three more Oscars along the way.

Commentary By Thomas La Tourrette – This is the hardest one to write as she is my all-time favorite actress. Strong early work and an early Oscar win for Morning Glory made her a star. Impressive work in 1933 in Little Women and 1935 in Alice Adams should have made her permanent. But a series of box office disappointments, even if Stage Door, Holiday, and especially Bringing up Baby are now looked at as classics, got her the label of box office poison. She returned to Broadway in a show written expressly for her, and with film rights in hand came back to Hollywood to soar in The Philadelphia Story. She stayed a star after that, in a career that would last another 40 years. Good work in the 1940s in films like Woman of the Year, State of the Union, and Adam’s Rib led to stellar work in the 1950s with The African Queen, Summertime, and The Rainmaker all earning her well deserved Oscar nominations. Suddenly, Last Summer and Long Day’s Journey into Night showed an amazing range of dowager parts for her. She took a few years off to care for an ailing Spencer Tracy, then returned to star with him in Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner. The following year she won again for her ferocious turn in The Lion in Winter, winning an unprecedented third Oscar as Best Actress. She turned mostly to television movies after that, but came back to the big screen in On Golden Pond and won a fourth Oscar on her 12th nomination. She went back mainly to television until Warren Beatty turned on his charm to get her to do one last role for film. Her part as his aunt in Love Affair was a last sweet part for her. She will be missed as there will never be anyone quite like her.

Madeline Kahn (1942-1999)

Commentary By Tripp Burton – Madeline Kahn is my easy choice for the funniest woman in movie history. She had an uncanny ability to make gigantic choices and make them seem more honest than they had any right to be. She was also incredibly versitile, able to be as frumpy as she could be sexy, as inviting as she could be cold, and as heartbreaking as she could be hysterical. She died too young, and never got lead roles that did her justice, but left us with a litany of great supporting performances in some of the funniest films of the last part of the 20th century. What she did from 1972-1974 alone is a career all to itself. Favorite performances: What’s Up, Doc?, Paper Moon, Blazing Saddles, Clue, Nixon.

Deborah Kerr (1921-2007)

Commentary By Peter J. Patrick – Deborah Kerr was a star of British cinema in such films as The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp and Black Narcissus before she became a Hollywood legend in such films as From Here to Eternity, The King and I, Tea and Sympathy, Heaven Knows, Mr. Allison, An Affair to Remember, Separate Tables, The Sundowners, The Innocents, The Chalk Garden, and The Night of the Iguana. The six-time Oscar nominee finally won a career achievement Oscar at the 1993 awards.

Commentary By Thomas La Tourrette – She was wonderful playing the slightly aloof figure with a burning desire just below the surface. From her triple role in The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp to the nuns of Black Narcissus and Heaven Knows, Mr. Allison, she brought a cool earthiness to her roles. Then she broke the mold as the sensual military wife in From Here to Eternity. Then she had the role of a lifetime as Anna in The King and I, capturing both the Victorian repression and strong sense of womanhood of the role. It is hard not to swoon when she dances with Yul Brynner. She wasn’t in that many movies after the 50s, but she left an indelible impression. She and Thelma Ritter share the dubious distinction of having the most Oscar nominations as an actress (six) without winning an award.

Angela Lansbury (1925-)

Commentary By Wesley Lovell – In the early 1980s, many children grew up watching the Wonderful World of Disney, which introduced younger generations to Disney movies that had been popular before they were born. Among them was Bedknobs & Broomsticks. Paired with her performance in Murder, She Wrote, my pre-teen self was enamored with Angela Lansbury. Since, then I’ve “discovered” her in a fine number of other films from Gaslight to Beauty and the Beast to her peerless work in The Manchurian Candidate, the performance that should have won her the Oscar. I’ve also become enamored of her theatrical career where her five Tony Awards puts her on a very small list of top Tony-winning talent. That she never won a competitive Emmy after eighteen nominations is disappointing. Nevertheless, I will never cease to have an interest in each new work she puts together.

Julianne Moore (1960-)

Commentary By Wesley Lovell – One of the finest working actresses of this generation, I first became familiar with Julianne Moore in Paul Thomas Anderson’s treatise on the porn industry: Boogie Nights. In a film filled with terrific performances, Moore’s stood out most prominently as the matriarch of a porn community. She continued to impress with each new role, landing a few duds, but almost always with meritorious work. She has received several Oscar nominations and only one trophy, but should certainly have more for many of her performances have been outright iconic.

Commentary By Tripp Burton – There is something intangible about Julianne Moore that makes her explode off of the screen. You can’t not watch her. Because of this, she has managed to accrue a filmography of wildly different characters, from porn stars to repressed housewives to rebel leaders to artists, in movies as varied as Hollywood blockbusters to quiet indies, and has imbued each of them with her trademark intelligence and grace. More than any other movie star of her generation, it is nearly impossible to pinpoint what a “Julianne Moore role“ is. It is telling, though, that her best performances are also the ones that seem the most disparate from who we think she is. Favorite performances: Short Cuts, Boogie Nights, Far From Heaven, A Single Man, Still Alice.

Michelle Pfeiffer (1958-)

Commentary By Tripp Burton – For a while in the late 1980s and early 1990s, it seemed like Michelle Pfeiffer could do no wrong. She was a Hollywood sex symbol who was as intelligent and talented as she was beautiful, and every performance she gave seemed both perfectly suited for her and a new take on something we had seen before. She is a truly original actress. It is sad that she hasn’t been able to maintain that (although it was a pace that was probably unsustainable), and I keep hoping that she will find another role as worthy of her as that decade of work was. Every time she reappears, I rush out to see if we are finally getting her resurgence, but it hasn’t quite happened yet. Favorite performances: Married to the Mob, Dangerous Liaisons, The Fabulous Baker Boys, Batman Returns, The Age of Innocence.

Vanessa Redgrave (1937-)

Commentary By Thomas La Tourrette – From her debut as the alluring object of desire in Morgan!, Vanessa [Redgrave] has been a formidable force onscreen. Lovely work in Isadora, Camelot, and Mary Queen of Scots should have cemented her as a Hollywood mainstay. However, her controversial Oscar acceptance speech for Julia meant that she would never have the huge career that she deserved. She will never be well accepted by some, but her work should stand by itself. She was absolutely wonderful as Mrs. Dalloway and might have gotten another nomination for that film if so much of it wasn’t done in voice over. Small parts in later films like Atonement, Venus, and Foxcatcher remind me of how good she can be, even if she is only onscreen for a short bit of time. Hopefully she will again get a role deserving of her talent.

Christina Ricci (1980-)

Commentary By Tripp Burton – Most great child actors struggle to find their voice as adult actors, but Christina Ricci wasn’t one of them. Perhaps it was because she seemed so far beyond her years as a child, giving performances with more nuance and wit than many of her adult co-stars, that she seemed to easily transition those skills into adulthood. Never an actress to explode off the screen, instead there is something about Ricci’s intelligence and demeanor that draws you into her world and makes you want to figure out what is going on inside her head. It helps that she is at her best as the outlier, looking at the world from the fringes and trying to figure us out as much as we are trying to figure her out. Favorite performances: Addams Family Values, The Ice Storm, Prozac Nation, Pumpkin, Black Snake Moan.

Rosalind Russell (1907-1976)

Commentary By Peter J. Patrick – Rosalind Russell began as a dramatic actress in the 1930s but it was her comedic timing in 1939’s The Women and 1940’s His Girl Friday that made her a major star. Oscar-nominated four times for My Sister Eileen, Sister Kenny, Mourning Becomes Electra, and Auntie Mame, she might just as easily have been nominated five more times for Craig’s Wife, The Women, His Girl Friday, Picnic, and Gypsy. She belatedly won the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award at the 1972 Oscars.

Susan Sarandon (1946-)

Commentary By Tripp Burton – At the beginning of her career, Susan Sarandon was a model cast in light roles based more on her looks and bust size rather than for any acting talent. Her transition to celebrated screen actress and dramatic heavyweight has to be one of the most fascinating in Hollywood history. Her surefire confidence on screen is always present, as is an intelligence that leads her through every character she plays. She has also made the transition, from sexpot to leading lady to grand dame of the screen, more natural than most of her contemporaries, thanks to an incredible depth of acting talent and an ability to transform her own personality into every character she encounters. Favorite performances: Rocky Horror Picture Show, Atlantic City, Thelma & Louise, Dead Man Walking.

Maggie Smith (1934-)

Commentary By Wesley Lovell – My first experience with Dame Maggie Smith was her performance in the murder comedy Murder By Death. While I’m certain I had seen her elsewhere, this was the role that brought her to my attention. It was the strongest female performance in the film. It was a witty, charming one. Her Oscar-winning work in The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie and California Suite are certain favorites of hers, and she’s been marvelous many times since including films like Death on the Nile, A Room with a View, Sister Act, Gosford Park, the Harry Potter franchise, and TV’s Downton Abbey. No matter the genre or the medium, Smith is one of our finest living actresses.

Commentary By Peter J. Patrick – Maggie Smtih was introduced to American audiences in Broadway’s New Faces of 1956, but didn’t achieve screen stardom until the mid-1960s. Unforgettable in her two Oscar-winning roles in The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie and California Suite as well as in such gems as Travels With My Aunt, A Private Function, A Room With a View, The Lonely Passion of Judith Hearne, Gosford Park, and the Harry Potter series, she won even more fans with TV’s Downton Abbey.

Commentary By Thomas La Tourrette – Forever known now as Minerva McGonagall in the Harry Potter series, she was known to an earlier age as Miss Jean Brodie, which won her an Oscar and made her a household name. It was a stunning performance that has held up beautifully. A second Oscar for playing an actress that doesn’t win an Oscar came within a decade. A lovely turn as the complaining chaperon in A Room with a View followed. The arch comments as the Mother Superior in the Sister Act movies may have helped lead to her casting [in Gosford Park, which led to her selection] as the dowager countess in Downton Abbey. Stellar work in last year’s The Lady in the Van and 2012’s Quartet show that she has not slowed up a bit. She can play anything from the working girl to the dowager with the same ease, and will hopefully continue to act for much longer even as she approaches the age of 82.

Sissy Spacek (1949-)

Commentary By Tripp Burton – Sissy Spacek has had one of the quietest prolific careers in American film. Without jumping into mainstream Hollywood cinema in a meaningful way, she has turned out stellar performance after stellar performance in quiet films that always improve because of her presence. She has gone from young ingenue (thanks especially to her petite frame) to Southern matriarch flawlessly, thanks to a passion and ferocity bubbling under the surface of everything she does. Spacek may not have the grandest range, but she has found so many nuances and layers to what she does that you know any performance by her will be a tour de force and will be well worth the two hour running time. Favorite performances: Badlands, Coal Miner’s Daughter, Raggedy Man, The Straight Story, In the Bedroom.

Barbara Stanwyck (1907-1990)

Commentary By Peter J. Patrick – Barbara Stanwyck survived as a major star longer than any of her contemporaries except [Bette] Davis and [Katharine] Hepburn by sheer force of personality and incomparable versatility. From Class A tearjerkers like Stella Dallas to hilarious comedies like The Lady Eve and Ball of Fire to uncompromising thrillers like Double Indemnity to holiday classics like Christmas in Connecticut to TV stardom in The Big Valley in the 1960s, and The Thorn Birds in the 1980s, the four-time Oscar nominee finally won a career achievement Oscar at the 1981 awards.

Emma Stone (1988-)

Commentary By Wesley Lovell – What a smashing breakthrough was Emma Stone’s performance in Easy A. Charismatic. Passionate. Smart. Funny. So launched a career that has yielded some fascinating performances, not necessarily always great, but always charming. Before that, she made her presence felt in Zombieland, but her career has been solid ever since with highlights including The Help, The Amazing Spider-Man 2, and what should have been an Oscar-winning performance in Birdman (at least she was nominated).

Meryl Streep (1949-)

Commentary By Peter J. Patrick – Meryl Streep has racked up her record nineteen Oscar nominations thanks to her amazing versatility. A three-time Oscar winner so far, she also starred in three Best Picture winners, The Deer Hunter, Kramer vs. Kramer, and Out of Africa, having been nominated for all three and winning for Kramer. Her best performances have arguably been in Kramer, Sophie’s Choice, for which also won, and Doubt, for which she was nominated. She is likely to receive her twentieth nomination for this year’s Florence Foster Jenkins [or for a film in the not-too-far future].

Commentary By Thomas La Tourrette – It would be difficult to create this list without Meryl. She has had her share of duds along the way, and some underserved Oscar nominations. But when one looks at the sheer breadth of her work, what she has done is astounding. I was not that fond of her first films, but the heart-wrenching work in Sophie’s Choice made me a fan. She followed that up with striking work in Out of Africa and A Cry in the Dark, among other films. She even livened up the mediocre comedies She-Devil and Death Becomes Her, making me wonder what she could do with a strongly written comedic script. Both Mamma Mia! and especially her lovely turn as Julia Child [in Julie & Julia] came closer to showing that. She absolutely captured the sound and look of a terminal cancer patient in One True Thing. The perfect ordinariness of her part in The Hours reminded me how good she can. Doubt, The Devil Wears Prada, and even last year’s trifle, Ricki and the Flash, continue to show how good she can be. I hope she continues to do that for some time to come.

Tilda Swinton (1960-)

Commentary By Thomas La Tourrette – In many ways she is almost a character actress more than a lead, but she absolutely disappears into her roles, never playing the same part twice. She has been in many more films than I have seen, but she does amaze. I had seen her in other roles, but the part of the distraught attorney in Michael Clayton was incredibly well played, and she won a well deserved Oscar for it. Her work as Mason in Snowpiercer was striking, especially as the part was written for a man, and she played it as if it were written for her. She followed that up as the ancient looking Madame in the Grand Budapest Hotel and then was amazingly pretty and cold-hearted in Trainwreck. She can be almost unrecognizable as she changes so totally between parts.

Dianne Wiest (1948-)

Commentary By Tripp Burton – One of the greatest character actresses of our time, both from her own prolific filmography and her ability to tackle broad comedy and heartfelt drama equally sublimely, Dianne Wiest is also one of our most underrated actresses. For someone with two Oscars, she doesn’t often enter the conversations she should be. Part of this is because she makes everything she does look so effortless: her put-upon wives and struggling lovers are just as natural as her divas and power players. She frequently stands toe-to-toe with her strongest peers and never backs down. She is certainly one of those actresses whose name on a poster means you have to check out a film, if only to see what she is doing this time. Favorite performances: Hannah and Her Sisters, Parenthood, Bullets Over Broadway, The Birdcage, Rabbit Hole.

Kate Winslet (1975-)

Commentary By Thomas La Tourrette – I came rather late to the Winslet fan group. But her work as the young Iris Murdoch [in Iris] won me over. She went toe-to-toe with Judi Dench who played her older self, and held her own. She was equally as good in Little Children, then came the banner year of 2008 with Revolutionary Road and The Reader. She was striking in the first and also memorable in the second. It seemed that she might end up without an Oscar yet again as she seemed likely to split the vote that year. The Academy compromised and nominated her as lead actress for The Reader, which was more of a supporting part. She easily won, but also deservedly. Her work since has been not always in films that are as good as her acting has been, but then she wowed in Steve Jobs. I don’t know what next she will do, but there should be some interesting roles up ahead.