The Best Performances of 2018

In no particular order, these were the best performances from films released in 2018 (by UK release date).

Jessica Chastain — Molly’s Game

Anthony Gonzalez — Coco

Meryl Streep — The Post

Paul Bettany — Journey’s End

Daniel Day-Lewis, Vicky Krieps — Phantom Thread

Michael B. Jordan — Black Panther

Sally Hawkins, Richard Jenkins, Michael Shannon, Doug Jones — The Shape of Water

Saoirse Ronan — Lady Bird

Margot Robbie — I, Tonya

Jesse Plemons — Game Night

Joaquin Phoenix — You Were Never Really Here

Justin Chon — Gook

Claes Bang — The Square

Claire Foy — Unsane

Emily Blunt — A Quiet Place

Jessie Buckley — Beast

Charlie Plummer — Lean on Pete

Charlize Theron — Tully

Gabriel Byrne, Toni Collette — Hereditary

Thomasin McKenzie — Leave No Trace

Ethan Hawke — First Reformed

Holly Hunter — Incredibles 2

Tom Cruise — Mission: Impossible — Fallout

John David Washington — BlacKkKlansman

John Cho — Searching

Logan Marshall-Green — Upgrade

Evan Peters, Barry Keoghan, Blake Jenner — American Animals

Constance Wu — Crazy Rich Asians

Harry Dean Stanton — Lucky

Brady Jandreau — The Rider

Blake Lively — A Simple Favour

Glenn Close, Jonathan Pryce — The Wife

Lady Gaga, Bradley Cooper — A Star is Born

Tom Hardy — Venom

Cynthia Erivo — Bad Times at the El Royale

Amandla Stenberg — The Hate U Give

Raimee Malek — Bohemian Rhapsody

Elizabeth Debicki — Widows

Sakura Andô — Shoplifters

Yalitza Aparicio — Roma

Laiketh Stanfeld — Sorry to Bother You

Robert Redford — The Old Man and the Gun

Zoey Deutch — Set It Up

Martin Freeman — Cargo

Natalie Portman — Annihilation

Shameik Moore, Jake Johnson — Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse

Julia Jedlikowska — Sicilian Ghost Story

Joanna Kulig — Cold War

Andrea Riseborough — Mandy

Fionn Whitehead — Bandersnatch

Kathryn Hahn — Private Life

Haley Lu Richardson — Columbus