Continuing my personal 2025 Oscar nominations, today I will be writing about the race for Best Actress.

This year’s nominees are Jessie Buckley (Hamnet), Rose Byrne (If I Had Legs I’d Kick You), Kate Hudson (Song Sung Blue), Renate Reinsve (Sentimental Value), and Emma Stone (Bugonia). Of those, I would keep Byrne, Hudson and Stone. Here are some other actresses who could round out the category.

Kirsten Dunst (Roofman)
This movie was doomed by a bad marketing campaign that pitched it as a slapstick comedy. It’s actually a sad, sweet drama about a man in over his head and the woman who nearly saves him from himself. Dunst is always excellent, and here she brings warmth and authenticity to the character of a hard-working single mother falling for a man who’s too good to be true. I was especially impressed by Dunst’s (and the film’s) depiction of religious faith.

Sally Hawkins (Bring Her Back)
Another year passes with a brilliant horror performance going unnoticed by the Academy. This is particularly true of performances by women, and we can add Hawkins to the ranks of Mia Goth, Lupita Nyong’o, Florence Pugh, and Toni Collette, to name some recent snubs. Hawkins plays a foster mother who takes in a pair of siblings after losing her own daughter, and her portrayal of maternal grief is just as gut-wrenching as likely winner Buckley’s in Hamnet.

Jennifer Lawrence (Die My Love)
Speaking of mothers going through it, Lawrence likely would have joined Buckley and Byrne among the Oscar five had her movie not tanked at the box office. Die My Love puts the “art” in postpartum depression, making it a bit of an endurance test at times, but Lawrence is riveting. She has always been a raw nerve, and here she uses her physicality along with her expressive eyes and pitch-perfect line readings, to bring us over the edge with her.

Amanda Seyfried (The Testament of Ann Lee)
I wasn’t a huge fan of this movie overall, but there’s no denying the raw power of Seyfried’s performance. She sings, she dances, she gives birth (multiple times) and loses her baby (multiple times). She widens her already huge eyes with ecstatic fervor and convincingly inspires a religious movement. It’s hard to come up with another actress who could have played this role this well.

Tessa Thompson (Hedda)
Thompson re-teams with writer-director Nia DaCosta for an adaptation of Henrik Ibsen’s Hedda Gabler, and adds her name to the laundry list of accomplished actresses who have tackled this complex role. She bring a sly sexiness to all the scheming and effortlessly exudes charm and class (which might not sound like acting, given that we’re talking about Tessa Thompson, but trust me, she’s great).