The 15 Best Acting Performances In A24 Movies Ranked

Ever since A24 officially formed in 2012, it's released independent films made by brilliant directors, writers, and performers, many of whom flew under the radar until a movie from this production company finally put them on the map. Throughout the 2010s, films like "Ex Machina" and "Spring Breakers" helped legitimize A24; movies like "Moonlight" and "Everything Everywhere All At Once" won the Oscar for Best Picture, and box office hits like "Talk to Me," "The Iron Claw," and "Babygirl" cemented A24 as a Hollywood mainstay.

It's difficult, with all that in mind, to pin down some of the best performance in the studio's history to date, but we're going to give that a shot right now. From Academy Award-winning performances to stunning dramatic turns from comedic stalwarts to fresh-faced newcomers leading their own films, here are the fifteen best acting performances in A24 films, ranked. (Normally, we would say ranked "worst to best," but to be clear, every single one of these performances is phenomenal.)

You probably know Bo Burnham best as a comedian and musician — specifically for his quarantine special "Inside" that came out in 2020 — but he's also a thoughtful and talented director, and one of the best choices he made in his 2018 film "Eighth Grade" was to cast Elsie Fisher in the lead role. As Kayla Day, who's wrapping up her last-ever week of middle school, Fisher is a revelation, particularly since the film's success rests solely on her shoulders.

Kayla is, for many people who had access to social media in middle or high school, extremely recognizable. She makes "vlogs" for YouTube encouraging her viewers to embrace their inner beauty and be confident but doesn't really have much of an audience, and while she's at school, Kayla languishes in obscurity, struggling to fit in with the popular kids. Throughout "Eighth Grade," Kayla experiences serious anxiety, struggles with her relationship with her overprotective dad Mark (Josh Hamilton), and tries to figure out who she really is ... and Fisher makes it all incredibly honest and believable.

Partway through "Civil War," Jesse Plemons looks at war journalists Joel (Wagner Moura), Jessie (Cailee Spaeny), and Lee (Kirsten Dunst) after apprehending them and asks, "What kind of American are you?" Plemons plays the smallest part in Alex Garland's dystopian political action thriller — as an unnamed soldier who's clearly on the side of a fascist, white supremacist faction fighting for control of the United States — but he makes such an enormous impact that he belongs on this list. Apparently, Plemons wasn't even supposed to play this small yet pivotal role, but when an unidentified actor dropped out, Dunst, Plemons' wife, suggested that Garland ask Plemons. The rest is history.

We all know, at this point, that Plemons is a fantastically versatile actor who can handle comedy and drama with ease, but for "Civil War," he taps into his quiet, stoic side to create something deeply terrifying and unsettling. In a politically fraught world, "Civil War" has left audiences feeling somewhat mixed, but there's no denying the power of Plemons' performance.

Youn Yuh-jung may have been the performer who won an Oscar for Lee Isaac Chung's 2021 film "Minari" — for her supporting role as Soon-ja, who moves to Arkansas from South Korea to help care for her grandchildren — but Steven Yeun's lead performance as Jacob anchors the entire film. Chung has publicly expressed that the film is inspired by his own memories as a young child who was born as a first-generation American to a family of South Korean immigrants, and in choosing Yeun for the role of the Yi family patriarch, Chung ensured that this very personal story would be told with care and grace.

Yeun is, to put it lightly, outstanding — he did earn his first Academy Award nod for playing Jacob but lost out to Anthony Hopkins in "The Father" — and his portrayal of a father who just wants to find a stable home in America and grow produce to create a business is as touching as it is real. The film's climactic scene, which involves a devastating fire, is some of Yeun's best work throughout his career (which is saying something), and his performance in just that scene is more than enough to land him on this list.

Three different actors play the protagonist of "Moonlight," Chiron — Alex R. Hibbert portrays "Little" Chiron and Hibbert gives the role over to Ashton Sanders when the character becomes a teenager — but Trevante Rhodes, who plays Adult Chiron, or "Black," gets to conclude the film ... which is a testament to his unbelievably lived-in and powerful performance. Like "Minari," this is a film where the supporting character took home the Academy Award for his performance — this time, it was Mahershala Ali for the role of Chiron's father figure and drug dealer Juan — but Rhodes is transcendent as an adult Chiron grappling with the difficult relationship he has with his mother and his own sexuality.

As a teenager, Chiron explores an intimate connection with his friend Kevin (then played by Jharrel Jerome), and as an adult, he reconnects with Kevin, now played by André Holland. Not only does Chiron have a heartfelt and earnest talk with Kevin about their tryst years prior, but he also is able to have an honest conversation with his estranged mother Paula (a stunningly good Naomie Harris), bringing his story full circle. Rhodes is perfectly cast as Chiron, and there's no question that this performance is one of the best in A24's history.

Hugh Grant is always a welcome presence — if you haven't seen his tour-de-force villain turn in "Paddington 2," go watch it right now — but in Scott Beck and Bryan Woods' psychological horror flick "Heretic," Grant gets center stage, and the film is better for it. At the beginning of "Heretic," Mormon missionaries Sister Barnes (Sophie Thatcher) and Sister Paxton (Chloe East) visit the quiet home of Grant's Mr. Reed and accept his invitation to come inside for some blueberry pie after he assures them that his wife is present and simply out of sight in the kitchen. Obviously, there's no wife, and things go downhill from there (to say the least).

"Heretic" is, it should be said, the only movie that currently exists where you can watch Hugh Grant do an impression of Jar-Jar Binks from the "Star Wars" prequels — but that's just one small part of the brilliance on display here. Grant uses his dorky British charm to full effect here even as Mr. Reed's sinister acts and intentions are revealed, and he's just a delight to watch from beginning to end despite how genuinely evil his character is. Grant has charisma for days, even in a horror movie ... and "Heretic" puts that on display.

Detractors of Florence Pugh's performance in Ari Aster's atmospheric horror movie "Midsommar" might try and claim that all she does is cry for the movie's entire run time, but that's a massive oversimplification. Pugh is a preternaturally talented actor who, to be sure, does do a lot of crying in "Midsommar" as Dani, a young woman who accompanies her awful boyfriend Christian (Jack Reynor) on a research trip to Sweden, but that's underselling the fact that Pugh is able to express roughly ten competing emotions at once with just her facial expression (and communicative eyes), which is on full display here.

As Dani transforms from a mild-mannered, grieving young woman to a surprisingly powerful figure within the Swedish commune during their midsummer rituals, Pugh's performances changes so subtly that you might miss some of Dani's growth on a first watch ... but if you watch "Midsommar" a handful of times, you'll fully realize that it's an example of a master at work. Pugh has worked with A24 a handful of other times, but "Midsommar" is still her best performance with the studio.

Towards the beginning of Jonathan Glazer's Oscar-winning film "The Zone of Interest," Hedwig, the wife of high-ranking Nazi officer Rudolf Höss (Christian Friedel) played by Sandra Hüller, tries on a fur coat and a lipstick in the privacy of her bedroom. The coat and lipstick aren't actually new, though; they're items purloined from captives and victims sent to Auschwitz Concentration Camp, the site where well over 1 million people, particularly European Jews, were murdered ... which Rudolf oversees. The scene featuring Hedwig is silent and contemplative, with Glazer allowing her passive complicity to take center stage, and only an actress as powerful as Hüller could have pulled it off.

"The Zone of Interest" came out in 2023, and that same year, Hüller received a ton of nominations and awards for her lead role in the French drama "Anatomy of a Fall" — but to get the fullest possible picture of Hüller as a performer, you must watch "The Zone of Interest." The movie is difficult but necessary, showing how people are willing to overlook outright atrocities for their own comfort — and Hüller's Hedwig is perhaps the "best" example of that disturbing casual cruelty.

In Jane Schoenbrun's 2024 film "I Saw the TV Glow," Owen, a lonely teenager played by Justice Smith, strikes up an unexpected friendship with his classmate Maddy (Jack Haven) in 1996 ... and it opens him up to an entire new world that he never could have imagined. Together, Owen and Maddy love to watch VHS tapes of a young adult fantasy series called "The Pink Opaque." This leads Owen towards a truly unexpected journey of self-discovery, with the entire film working as an allegory for gender dysphoria and the freedom one experiences when they identify that feeling; Schoenbrum told Variety that the movie is about the "egg crack moment" where you realize you're transgender.

Smith plays Owen across several decades and through various health ailments, including a debilitating case of asthma, and he's the beating heart and soul of the film without question. When the movie reaches its climax and Owen, suffering as an employee at an entertainment center, has a full breakdown, it feels real and earned ... and that's because Smith is just so incredibly good in this mind-bending, excellent film.

You're going to have to spend about three hours experiencing the ups and downs of the life of architect László Tóth in Brady Corbet's epic film "The Brutalist," but as Tóth, Adrien Brody makes it well worth your time. Brody already has an Academy Award for his role in the 2002 Holocaust drama "The Pianist," and sure, "The Brutalist" shares some DNA with that film (the fictional Tóth is a survivor of the Holocaust), but it's still incredible that Brody is able to create an utterly unique performance years after his defining turn in "The Pianist."

As Tóth, Brody spans several decades and shows the audience every step of Tóth's life as an immigrant in the United States who has to contend with addiction, corruption, and sexual assault ... and as harrowing as it often is to watch, it's further proof that Brody is one of the most talented actors in Hollywood's entire history. Brody's turn in "The Brutalist" is one of his absolute best, which is saying something.

If you or anyone you know needs help with addiction issues, help is available. Visit the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration website or contact SAMHSA's National Helpline at 1-800-662-HELP (4357).

If you or anyone you know has been a victim of sexual assault, help is available. Visit the Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network website or contact RAINN's National Helpline at 1-800-656-HOPE (4673).

Greta Lee has been a small-screen staple for years, but in 2023's "Past Lives," she finally gets to shine in a lead role in Celine Song's directorial debut about what it's like to see a childhood flame years later and in drastically different circumstances. As Nora, a girl born in Seoul, South Korea who immigrates to Toronto with her family, Lee perfectly portrays a young woman looking to put roots down in America after she moves to New York as an adult and meets her husband Arthur (John Magaro). Nora and Arthur are enjoying their life together in New York — and then, one day, Nora's childhood love Hae Sung (Teo Yoo) reconnects with her after years of not speaking, at which point Nora, Arthur, and Hae Sung all have to consider the path not taken.

Lee received an Oscar nomination for her lead role, and it's easy to see why; her quiet yet deeply affecting portrayal of a woman who's happy in her life and marriage but now wonders "what if?" is incredibly stunning, particularly in the film's final moments. "Past Lives" is an incredible film overall, and Lee makes it truly perfect.

Saoirse Ronan has turned in a whole bunch of great performances throughout her career, but as the "titular role" in Greta Gerwig's first solo directorial debut "Lady Bird," she shines the brightest. For anyone who's ever been a teenager, "Lady Bird" puts all the huge, seemingly insurmountable feelings you experience during that time front and center, letting Ronan center every scene as Christine McPherson, a headstrong and impulsive Catholic schoolgirl about to graduate who insists on going by the name Lady Bird.

Desperate as Lady Bird is to leave her hometown of Sacramento for greener pastures, Gerwig — who also grew up in the California capital — paints a vivid and gentle picture of a girl who finally realizes that she does love where she's from and everything she's been through to get there. Timothée Chalamet, Beanie Feldstein, and Laurie Metcalf are all phenomenal in "Lady Bird," but Ronan is the sun around which they all orbit, and she's phenomenal.

There is no "Everything Everywhere All At Once" without Michelle Yeoh. The central role of Evelyn Quan Wang, a Chinese immigrant and laundromat owner who has a fractured relationship with both her husband Waymond (Ke Huy Quan) and daughter Joy (Stephanie Hsu), was created by directors and writers Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert for Yeoh (after they initially conceived it for Jackie Chan), and amidst a tax audit from the IRS, Evelyn discovers that she can jump between multiverses ... and even has to save all of them from a mysterious figure named Jobu Tupacki.

Quan and Yeoh both won Oscars for their roles in "Everything Everywhere All At Once" — as did their co-star Jamie Lee Curtis — and considering that this movie marks Yeoh's first ever leading role in her entire career, it catapulted her to new heights after decades in the industry. Yeoh's Evelyn is the beating heart of this over-the-top, wild film ... and it's easily one of the best performances she's ever delivered.

When we first meet Brie Larson's imprisoned young mother in Lenny Abrahamson's 2015 film "Room," we only know her as "Ma," because the only person who perceives her at all is her son Jack (Jacob Tremblay). Ma, whose real name is Joy Newsome, has been held captive by a man only referred to as "Old Nick" (Sean Bridgers) for seven years and gave birth to Jack two years after she was captured; all that Jack knows is "room," the shed in which they live.

Between a harrowing escape scene and Joy's difficult reintroduction to the real world after she and Jack are finally rescued, "Room" is a tour-de-force and heartbreaking performance for Larson, who ultimately swept awards season and won the Academy Award for best leading actress. Tremblay is also astoundingly good — and the story is a testament to Jack's resilience — but it's Larson who holds the entire enterprise together as a woman forced to rebuild after spending her teenage years and early adulthood in full captivity.

Whenever people talk about actors who deserved Oscar nominations for specific roles and missed out on the honor, a few names come up — and one is Toni Collette for her role as miniature artist and mother Annie Graham in Ari Aster's first feature film "Hereditary." At the beginning of the film, Annie has recently lost her mother and tells a support group that the two always had a difficult relationship until Annie's younger child Charlie, played by Milly Shapiro, was born. This revelation really comes into play relatively early in the film when, after Charlie has an allergic reaction while out with her brother Peter (Alex Wolff), she sticks her head out of the car window on the way to get medical help and is decapitated.

There's a lot going on in "Hereditary" — most of it centering around a demon named Paimon — but Collette's emotionally raw, intense, and breathtaking performance as a grieving woman drawn into supernatural beliefs is easily the most talked-about aspect of the whole movie. Collette is always good, but she's at her absolute best in "Hereditary."

Nobody has ever delivered a better performance in an A24 movie than Adam Sandler in "Uncut Gems," the high-octane, stress-filled drama by Josh and Benny Safdie. As Howard Ratner, a jeweler with significant gambling debts trying to outrun loan sharks while taking care of his family in New York City, Sandler dials his intensity to up an 11 out of 10, particularly as Howard tries to settle all of his outstanding debts using a 600-carat black opal. Even as Howard does one insanely stupid thing after another to the point where you want to leap into the screen and yell at him, Sandler makes him strangely sympathetic, using his considerable presence and charisma to paint a picture of a man absolutely crumbling under the pressure of the disaster he's created.

Sandler should, like Toni Collette, have earned an Academy Award nod for this role, but he didn't; still, it reminded everyone that he's much more than a guy who does silly voices and agrees to Netflix projects so he can go on vacation. "Uncut Gems" is one of the most tense movies ever made, and it's not just a career-best turn from Sandler — it's the top A24 performance ever.