After Sunday, who are the best actors without Oscars?

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On Sunday, the Academy Awards gave acting Oscars to Frances McDormand, Gary Oldman (blech), Allison Janney and Sam Rockwell. Aside from McDormand — who previously won best actress for Fargo — the winners looked a whole lot like examples of the Academy rewarding actors for long, Oscar-less careers. Whether or not they deserved their Oscars (they didn’t), Janney, Rockwell and Oldman are all off the list of best actors to never win one.

But there are still plenty of excellent actors who’ve gone their whole careers without winning an Academy Award. In fact, I considered a running list of about 100 actors without Oscars, which illustrates how many talented actors there are working today. It also means that a lot of people on this list of 30 (including 16 honorable mentions) will never go on to win an Oscar. Hopefully this list will be just as good as an Oscar for them. Or they can just switch to TV and win an Emmy.

Here are some of the best living actors age 40 and above who are overdue for an acting Oscar (because how overdue can you be if you’re under 40).

• Annette Bening

Best roles: American Beauty, 20th Century Women, The Kids Are All Right, Being Julia

Oscar nominations: 4

Bening’s incredible rate of churning out phenomenal work has not slowed one bit, with some of her most iconic performances coming in the last few years. At this rate, it’ll be hard for the Academy to keep ignoring the legendary actress, who would certainly belong in the Hall of Fame of acting. Here’s Bening at her best:

• Joaquin Phoenix

Best roles: The Master, Her, Walk the Line, Gladiator

Oscar nominations: 3

Phoenix may be the most intense, versatile actor working today. Some of his most famous roles rank among the best performances since the turn of the century, and Phoenix has got anywhere between one and four movies that could conceivably give him his long-awaited Oscar next year.

• Amy Adams

Best roles: The Master, Arrival, Junebug, Doubt, The Fighter

Oscar nominations: 5

Adams has been termed by many as the new Leonardo Dicaprio as she’s constantly picking up nominations only to be snubbed for great performances. Adams is one of the best actors working right now and she’s arguably already lost out on at least one Oscar she deserved.

She’s still consistently putting out top-notch material and with an upcoming role in the Dick Cheney biopic, Backseat, maybe next year will finally yield an Adams victory.

• Brad Pitt

Best roles: Se7en, Fight Club, The Tree of Life, Curious Case of Benjamin Button, Moneyball

Oscar nominations: 3 as an actor

Pitt, who’s actually won an Oscar for producing 12 Years A Slave, is an underrated actor. He’s been incredible in iconic roles, with so many that I had to leave some of his best work off the list. He’s increasingly turned his attention to working as a producer, but he’s still getting on screen once or twice a year, and Pitt ensures he’s always one to watch.

• Angela Bassett

Best roles: What’s Love Got To Do With It, Strange Days, Sunshine State

Oscar nominations: 1

Bassett is a true legend and the fact that she’s only been nominated for an Oscar once is an outrage. Even worse might be Hollywood’s consistent failure to provide her the roles she showed she could excel in when she did What’s Love Got To Do With It. With the film industry theoretically moving in the right direction, it’s time to see Bassett sink her teeth into another meaty, leading role. If she gets that chance, there’s no reason an Oscar would be out of the picture.

• Ralph Fiennes

Best roles: Schindler’s List, Quiz Show, The Grand Budapest Hotel, The Constant Gardener, The English Patient

Oscar nominations: 2

Unlike a lot of people on this list, Fiennes can point to a very specific year as the one when he clearly should have won his Oscar. Fiennes’ performance as Amon Goth in Schindler’s List is a canonical entry in the book of amazing supporting actor turns. He lost to Tommy Lee Jones’ decent showing as a Tommy Lee Jones-adjacent character in The Fugitive. Fiennes is no-one hit wonder, either, as he’s shown us Oscar-worthy work as recently as 2014, for The Grand Budapest Hotel. He’s also the star of one of the 1990s’ most underrated films, Quiz Show. Seriously, everyone go watch it (also, look at 1990s trailers!).

• Isabelle Huppert

Best roles: Elle, The Piano Teacher, Violette, White Material

Oscar nominations: 1

Actors who mainly star in foreign language films, as Huppert does, are typically ignored by the Oscars. But the Academy’s complete dismissal of Huppert until last year’s nomination for Elle is egregious. Huppert has two wins and a record 16 nominations at France’s national film awards, the César Awards, so let’s not feel too bad for her.

• Will Smith

Best roles: Ali, The Pursuit of Happyness, Six Degrees of Separation, Seven Pounds

Oscar nominations: 2

Smith’s career has been full of ups and downs, but his talent is unquestionable. Smith is one of the most charming performers in the world. He can also play sentimentality and emotional moments very well, and immerse himself in a performance. His biggest obstacle as of late has been film selection. If Smith can get back to working with great directors on good scripts, he should at least find himself in contention for Oscar nominations again.

• Jessica Chastain

Best roles: Zero Dark Thirty, The Help, Miss Sloane, Take Shelter

Oscar nominations: 2

Chastain is an incredibly powerful actor, and her presence and delivery demand the camera whenever she’s on screen. Given Chastain’s incredible ability and her propensity for picking good movies, it should only be a matter of time before she takes home an Oscar. Even in only a pretty good movie in Molly’s Game, Chastain shone through.

• Willem Dafoe

Best roles: Platoon, The Florida Project, Shadow of the Vampire, The Last Temptation of Christ

Oscar nominations: 3

Dafoe has made a long career of producing scene-grabbing, captivating acting, whether he be intense and menacing or softer and sadder, as he was in The Florida Project. In what was the year’s best supporting actor performance, Dafoe got snubbed by losing to Rockwell — who, admittedly, would be on this list if he had lost instead. The academy can only hope it didn’t waste its best chance to honor the storied career Dafoe has put together.

• Salma Hayek

Best roles: Frida, Beatriz at Dinner, Desperado, Midaq Alley

Oscar nominations: 1

Salma Hayek is one of the most underappreciated actors in Hollywood right now. How quickly people have forgotten her stunning turn as Frida Kahlo in Frida, after which Hayek seemed poised to go on a run of Oscar-worthy performances. Instead, she’s basically been ignored ever since, even going completely undiscussed after Beatriz at Dinner, her best performance since playing Frida Kahlo. She’s consistently the best part of adequate movies and, when she gets her hand on a good script and director, she’s excellent. Hayek deserves more recognition.

• Glenn Close

Best roles: Fatal Attraction, The Natural, Dangerous Liaisons, The Big Chill

Oscar nominations: 6

Close is tied for the most Oscar nominations without a win of any actress and is only two behind Peter O’Toole’s undesirable record for most acting nominations without a win. It’s a shame too, because Close is personally responsible for some exemplary, imminently memorable work. Her rate of excellence has slowed in recent years, but all it would really take is one more great role and performance and it’d be hard to imagine the Oscars skipping over Close again. Then again, that’s probably what O’Toole assumed as well.

• Tom Cruise

Best roles: Jerry Maguire, Rain Man, Magnolia, Born on the Fourth of July

Oscar nominations: 3

Tom Cruise’s controversial and questionable private life has long overshadowed a great acting career. Cruise had an impressive run of dramatic acting earlier in his career, peaking in Paul Thomas Anderson’s Magnolia.

Even now, as he seems stuck in his action hero phase, Cruise remains a charismatic, superstar leading man. And boy can he sprint and fall better than anyone.

• Don Cheadle

Best roles: Hotel Rwanda, Boogie Nights, Devil in a Blue Dress, Traffic, Talk To Me

Don Cheadle is about as good and versatile of an actor as there is in Hollywood. Because he’s so funny and charming in real life, it’s been easy for Cheadle’s acting talent to slide under the radar. But Cheadle is a fantastic addition to every film he’s in, whether it’s a towering performance like his in Hotel Rwanda or a sometimes-funny, sometimes-devastating turn in Boogie Nights.

Honorable mentions (including people under 40, who are bolded)

• Robert Redford

Best roles: The Sting, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, All is Lost, All the President’s Men

• Samuel L. Jackson

Best roles: Pulp Fiction, Django Unchained, A Time To Kill, Jackie Brown

• Julie Delpy

Best roles: Before Sunrise, Before Sunset, Before Midnight, Voyager

• Idris Elba

Best roles: Beasts of No Nation, Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom, Molly’s Game

• Saoirse Ronan

Best roles: Lady Bird, Atonement, Brooklyn

• Jake Gyllenhaal

Best roles: Nightcrawler, Brokeback Mountain, Prisoners, Enemy, Stronger

• Taraji P. Henson

Best roles: Hidden Figures, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, Hustle & Flow

• Michelle Williams

Best roles: Blue Valentine, Manchester by the Sea, Brokeback Mountain

• Gael García Bernal

Best roles: The Motorcycle Diaries, Y Tu Mamá También, Amores Perros, Babel

• Ryan Gosling

Best roles: Lars and the Real Girl, Blue Valentine, Drive, La La Land, Half Nelson

• Paul Dano

Best roles: There Will be Blood, Swiss Army Man, Love & Mercy,

• Tom Hardy

Best roles: The Revenant, Locke, Mad Max: Fury Road, Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy

• Rosario Dawson

Best roles: Top Five, Rent, Seven Pounds

• Michael Shannon

Best roles: Take Shelter, Revolutionary Road, Nocturnal Animals, 99 Homes

• Oscar Isaac

Best roles: Inside Llewyn Davis, Ex Machina, A Most Violent Year

• David Oyelowo

Best roles: Selma, Middle of Nowhere, A Most Violent Year