The final acting category in my personal list of 2024 Oscar nominees is Best Actress.

This was by far the hardest lineup of the bunch. I could have gone with a completely different list of five and been just as happy, and just as sad that I was leaving the other five out. That said, I like where this list ended up.

And the nominees are…

Amy Adams – Nightbitch
Adams racked up six Oscar nominations without winning, then went on a five-year streak of very bad movies. Nightbitch should have been the one to get her back to the ceremony. Adams leans into the frumpiness of her character, a frazzled mother whose frustration and depression takes her to some weird places (as in, she believes she’s turning into a dog). But it’s more than the “bravery” of her physical transformation that works — it’s the fierce honesty she brings to every moment of her journey.

Willa Fitzgerald – Strange Darling
Strange Darling keeps you guessing about the true nature of the twisted relationship at its core, and Fitzgerald’s performance is the key to making the puzzle pieces fit. She’s our tour guide through a non-linear suspense thriller, and the movie’s secrets are always hiding right behind her eyes. What she does with those eyes in the film’s gripping final minutes earned her a place on this list.

Mikey Madison – Anora
My one overlap with the Academy. Madison’s Ani is a practical but ambitious sex worker who gets swept up in a fairy tale romance only to see the dream disintegrate before her eyes. We spend the entirety of Anora with Madison, and watch her cycle through elation, anger, disillusionment, and despair. Like Strange Darling, the movie ends with its lead actress cycling through a dozen emotions at once in the front seat of a car.

Lea Seydoux – The Beast
I nominated Seydoux’s co-star, George MacKay, for supporting actor, and I’m certainly not leaving her out for leading the same film backwards and in heels. Seydoux’s role isn’t technically harder than MacKay’s (she doesn’t adopt multiple accents) but it’s emotionally deeper. Does anybody cry better than her? And this is yet another example of a movie that ends with its most gut-wrenching scene, one featuring some of Seydoux’s best work.

Naomi Scott – Smile 2
Even though Demi Moore didn’t make my personal list, I’m glad she was one of the rare Oscar nominees from a horror movie. This genre consistently features incredible acting — usually by women — and it almost never gets recognized. Among the actresses I left off this list are Nell Tiger Free (The First Omen), Juliette Gariépy (Red Rooms), and Lily Rose Depp (Nosferatu), none of whom were recognized by awards bodies for their acclaimed work. Naomi Scott was best of all, playing a traumatized pop star in this very effective sequel to 2022’s Smile. She breaks down so convincingly, and so often, that I can’t imagine this role didn’t scar her for life. She also does a great job portraying the life of an overwhelmed celebrity, and she handles the singing and dancing so well you walk out wanting to pick up a Skye Riley album.

And the winner is… Mikey Madison. Anora is one of the most special films of the year, and its success rests largely on Madison’s shoulders.