These 10 Thriller Movie Performances Deserved Oscar Nominations

Anora, one of the best thriller movies of 2024, swept the Oscars this year. Sean Baker won 4 Oscars for editing, writing, directing, and co-producing, and Mikey Madison won a fifth for the film in the Best Actress category. Among others in her category was Demi Moore for her performance in The Substance, another great thriller that came out last year. The other three acting categories included nominations for actors in another thriller, Conclave. 2024 wasn’t the strongest year for thrillers, but the few good ones shared many nominations between them.

Among the most overlooked thrillers is Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga, which is a 2024 flop movie that could become a cult hit in the future. Few sci-fi movies have been as successful at the Oscars as Mad Max: Fury Road, but despite maintaining some of its quality, its prequel was largely panned by critics and failed to perform well commercially either. Chris Hemsworth’s performance in the movie deserved a nomination at least. While Anatomy of a Fall, an essentially perfect legal drama, was recognized at the Oscars, the Academy has snubbed great thriller movie performances over the years.

10

Emily Blunt – Sicario (2015)

As Kate Macer

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Sicario

R

Action

Crime

Thriller

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9/10

46

8.8/10

Release Date

September 17, 2015

Runtime

122 minutes

Director

Denis Villeneuve

Writers

Taylor Sheridan

Producers

Basil Iwanyk, Edward McDonnell, Ellen H. Schwartz, Molly Smith, Thad Luckinbill, Stacy Perskie

Cast

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  • Headshot Of Benicio Del Toro

    Benicio Del Toro

    Alejandro Gillick

  • Headshot Of Emily Blunt

    Emily Blunt

    Kate Macer

Sicario is a crime thriller directed by Denis Villeneuve, featuring Emily Blunt as an idealistic FBI agent. The film explores the intense and morally complex war on drugs at the U.S.-Mexico border, with key performances by Benicio del Toro and Josh Brolin.

Main Genre

Action

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It wasn’t until she appeared in a Christopher Nolan movie as a supporting character that the Academy finally decided to nominate Emily Blunt for an Oscar. She has given us memorable and compelling performances throughout her career, including in films like The Devil Wears Prada, My Summer of Love, and The Girl on the Train. The Academy has never looked at horror films favorably, so her performances in the A Quiet Place movies didn’t stand a chance either. However, the one that stands out as most ignored is Denis Villeneuve’s Sicario.

Daniel Kaluuya in Sicario

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To this day, performances in Denis Villeneuve’s movies regularly get snubbed at the Oscars. Many of Blunt’s performances snubbed by the Academy earned her SAG-AFTRA, BAFTA, or Golden Globe nominations at least, but they all passed on Sicario. Her character, an idealistic FBI agent, quietly unravels while reconciling with the lawlessness of her coworkers, and Blunt’s expert portrayal of her emotional turmoil deserves more recognition.

9

Jake Gyllenhaal – Nightcrawler (2014)

As Lou Bloom

Nightcrawler Movie Poster 2014

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Nightcrawler

R

Crime

Drama

Thriller

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9/10

9.7/10

Release Date

October 31, 2014

Runtime

117 Minutes

Director

Dan Gilroy

Writers

Dan Gilroy

Cast

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  • Headshot Of Riz Ahmed In The 24th British Independent Film Awards

    Riz Ahmed

  • Headshot Of Bill Paxton

    Bill Paxton

Written and directed by Dan Gilroy, Nightcrawler follows petty thief Lou Bloom (Jake Gyllenhaal) after he learns of a potentially lucrative job opportunity selling footage of violent events to local media outlets. Lou becomes a “stringer” – a freelance journalist who captures and records footage for news stations – and finds that the profession sucks him into the most dangerous parts of Los Angeles. Drawn deeper into his dark obsession, Lou becomes increasingly fixated with violence and crime.  

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For someone with his talent and repertoire of incredible performances, it’s disappointing and surprising that Jake Gyllenhaal doesn’t have an Academy Award yet. Apart from his work in Ang Lee’s Brokeback Mountain, none of his performances have even been nominated for an Oscar. Donnie Darko, Zodiac, Prisoners, Enemy, Demolition, Southpaw, and Stronger – there’s an endless list of great Gyllenhaal performances that have been snubbed. However, none of his Oscar snubs are perhaps as egregious as Nightcrawler.

Despite a fantastic awards season with BAFTA, Critics’ Choice, and Golden Globe nominations, he didn’t receive an Oscar nomination for Nightcrawler.

Gyllenhaal plays Lou Bloom, an enthusiastic news reporter who goes overboard in his zeal to become the best. Nightcrawler is a drama film that verges on becoming horror because it follows Lou’s descent into madness. Gyllenhaal’s performance is measured, and he gradually starts transforming the seemingly harmless Lou from the opening scene into a psychopath toward the end of it. Despite a fantastic awards season with BAFTA, Critics’ Choice, and Golden Globe nominations, he didn’t receive an Oscar nomination for Nightcrawler.

8

Jeon Jong-seo – Burning (2018)

As Shin Hae-mi

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Burning

R

Drama

Mystery

Release Date

May 17, 2018

Runtime

148 Minutes

Director

Chang-dong Lee

Writers

Jungmi Oh, Chang-dong Lee, Haruki Murakami

Producers

Lee Joon-dong, Huh Soo Young, Jang Won-seok, Ok Gwang-hee, Jung Cheol-ung

Cast

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  • Cast Placeholder Image

    Ah In Yoo

    Lee Jong-su

  • Headshot Of Steven Yeun IN The 35th Annual Producers Guild Awards

    Steven Yeun

    Ben

  • Cast Placeholder Image

    Jong-seo Jeon

    Shin Hae-mi

  • Cast Placeholder Image

    Soo-Kyung Kim

    Yeon-ju

Burning is a South Korean psychological drama directed by Lee Chang-dong. Based on Haruki Murakami’s short story “Barn Burning,” the film stars Yoo Ah-in, Steven Yeun, and Jeon Jong-seo. Set in contemporary Seoul, it follows an aspiring writer who becomes entangled in a mysterious relationship with an enigmatic man claiming to have a penchant for burning greenhouses. The narrative examines themes of socioeconomic disparity, obsession, and existential ennui.

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Based on Haruki Murakami’s short story Barn Burning, Lee Chang-dong’s Burning is one of the best thriller movies of the 2010s. A slow-burn thriller, it’s one of the director’s finest films to date, meandering through seemingly disjointed story segments before culminating in a 15-minute climax that changes everything. It follows Lee Jong-su, whose ordinary life gets chaotic after he meets an old acquaintance, who later introduces him to a charismatic man with concerning interests.

Burning became the first Korean film to be shortlisted for the Best Foreign Language Film Academy Award in 2019, which Parasite won the next year.

A competitor for the Palme d’Or in 2018, Burning received critical acclaim for its unnerving atmosphere, which leaves a sense of unresolved angst hanging in the air even after the film is over. All three primary actors in the film received a host of nominations, but none of them were nominated for an Oscar. Jeon Jong-seo was nominated for the Baeksang Award, which she later won for The Call. Her whimsical performance, meticulously delivered to portray her character’s unease, deserved a nod from the Academy.

7

Adam Sandler – Uncut Gems (2019)

As Howard Ratner

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Uncut Gems

R

Comedy

Drama

Crime

ScreenRant logo

6/10

9/10

Release Date

December 13, 2019

Runtime

134 minutes

Director

Josh Safdie, Benny Safdie

Writers

Ronald Bronstein, Josh Safdie, Benny Safdie

Cast

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  • Cast Placeholder Image

    Jonathan Aranbayev

  • Headshot Of Eric Bogosian

    Eric Bogosian

A crime thriller from Josh and Benny Safdie, Uncut Gems follows New York jeweler Howard Ratner (Adam Sandler) as his gambling addiction forces him to associate with increasingly dangerous individuals. After receiving an incredibly rare black opal, Howard believes he can finally free himself of his mounting debts, but not without engaging in one final high-stakes balancing act while fending off violent loan sharks.

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Comedy is another genre that the Academy barely ever recognizes at its awards ceremony. So it’s not surprising that Adam Sandler, known for crude and slapstick comedy films, has never been nominated for an Oscar, no matter how good he is in his comedic roles. However, Paul Thomas Anderson’s Punch-Drunk Love, which won Anderson the Best Director award at Cannes, showcases Sandler’s versatility. He even received a Golden Globe nomination for it, but the Academy snubbed him, and the film.

While Punch-Drunk Love is a niche absurdist comedy, Sandler’s career-best performance is in a Safdie brothers thriller that deserved more recognition during awards season than it got. Uncut Gems follows jeweler Howard Ratner during a particularly tumultuous period of his life. He is trying his best to make ends meet as all his shady deals and his recklessness come catching up to him. Watching it makes one forget that Sandler is a comedy actor. His work in Uncut Gems gave us one of the best performances in an A24 movie, and it’s a shame he wasn’t nominated for an Oscar.

6

Lupita Nyong’o – Us (2019)

As Adelaide/Red

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Us

R

Horror

Mystery

Thriller

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9/10

10

7.9/10

Release Date

March 22, 2019

Runtime

116 Minutes

Director

Jordan Peele

Writers

Jordan Peele

Cast

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  • Headshot Of Lupita Nyong'o In The Photocall for 'A Quiet Place: Day One' at the IET Building in London

    Lupita Nyong’o

  • Headshot Of Winston Duke In The Los Angeles Premiere Of Universal Pictures 'The Fall Guy'

    Winston Duke

Written and directed by Jordan Peele, Us follows the Wilson family; Adelaide (Lupita Nyong’o) and her husband Gabe (Winston Duke), and their children, Zora (Shahadi Wright Joseph) and Jason (Evan Alex). When visiting a remote lakeside cabin, the Wilson family is beset by exact doppelgangers of themselves, who quickly disclose that they mean their counterparts harm. The Wilson family is forced to fight for their lives against twisted mirror images of themselves, not realizing that there are more doppelgangers out there.

Main Genre

Horror

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Yes, Lupita Nyong’o has an Oscar, let alone a nomination. It is even more impressive that she won it for her first-ever acting role, in Steven McQueen’s Twelve Years a Slave. Only 16 people have ever managed to win an Oscar for their acting debuts. However, given the acclaim that brought Nyong’o, her career’s not grown as expected. She played minor characters in the Star Wars sequels and the MCU’s Black Panther franchise, but hasn’t had that many leading roles.

Dana from Cabin in the Woods and Ellison from Sinister

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Apart from a voice-acting role in The Wild Robot, one of the best 2024 animated movies, Nyong’o has only led three horror movies and was part of the main ensemble in 355. Of A Quiet Place: Day One, Little Monsters, and Us, Nyong’o’s double role in the last one is particularly deserving of critical acclaim. Not only does she play two characters, she plays one of them pretending to be the other for the whole film. She should have received her second Oscar nomination for Us.

5

Song Kang-ho – Parasite (2019)

As Kim Ki-taek

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Parasite

R

Comedy

Thriller

Drama

ScreenRant logo

9/10

14

9.5/10

Release Date

November 8, 2019

Runtime

132 minutes

Director

Bong Joon Ho

Writers

Jin Won Han, Bong Joon Ho

Cast

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  • Cast Placeholder Image

    Yeo-Jeong Jo

  • Cast Placeholder Image

    Myeong-hoon Park

Best Picture Oscar winner Parasite follows the impoverished Kim family, who live in a small apartment and consistently struggle to make ends meet. After they chance across the gullible and wealthy Park family, the Kims ingratiate themselves through lies and deceit, earning themselves jobs taking care of the household. However, their newfound luck is built on an ever-growing foundation of mistruths – one that threatens to fall down around them at any moment.

Main Genre

Drama

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Before Lee Chang-dong’s Burning got shortlisted for the Best Foreign Language Film Academy Award, no Korean film had come that close to getting a nomination. The next year, not only did Parasite get nominated for that category, it was also nominated for Best Picture, both of which it won, creating a record. While it received six nominations and four wins at the Oscars, the acting in the film wasn’t deemed worth nominating.

Parasite follows a family of four who all work for or know the members of a rich upper-class family who live in a large house in the city. After their employers announce that they’re going away on vacation for a while, the working family moves in, and things come to a head soon. Song Kang-ho plays Kim Ki-taek, the father of the central family, who works as a chauffeur. His character has an air of calmness wrought with sorrow and a sense of tragedy, and of the cast members, at least Song Kang-ho should have received an acting Oscar nomination.

4

Jurnee Smollett – Eve’s Bayou (1997)

As Eve Batiste

Eve's Bayou - Poster - Samuel Jackson & Lynn Whitfield

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Eve’s Bayou

R

Drama

Release Date

November 7, 1997

Director

Kasi Lemmons

Writers

Kasi Lemmons

Cast

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  • Headshot OF Jurnee Smollett

    Jurnee Smollett

  • Headshot OF Meagan Good

    Meagan Good

  • Samuel L. Jackson headshot

    Samuel L. Jackson

  • Cast Placeholder Image

    Lynn Whitfield

Eve’s Bayou is a drama film directed by Kasi Lemmons, exploring the complex dynamics within an affluent African-American family in Louisiana. Jurnee Smollett stars as Eve, a young girl who witnesses tumultuous events surrounding her father’s infidelities, played by Samuel L. Jackson. The film delves into themes of memory and perception, magnifying the impact of personal and familial secrets.

Main Genre

Drama

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A decade ago, the lack of diversity among the nominees at the Academy Awards in 2015 led to the coining of the #OscarsSoWhite tag. It has since turned into an activist movement, with many prominent Black stars boycotting the awards every year. If that’s the case even in 2025, there was obviously no hope in 1997 for an independent Southern gothic film starring African Americans in all the major roles, and written, directed, and produced by Black people too.

Kasi Lemmons both wrote and directed Eve’s Bayou, which marked her directorial debut. It follows 10-year-old Eve, played by Jurnee Smollett, who lives with her family in Eve’s Bayou. She has the gift of foresight, and her coming-of-age is marked by emotional turmoil from discovering secrets about her father that makes her mad at him. Jurnee Smollett delivers a remarkable performance that is exactly the kind of thing the Academy loves to nominate. The poignant family drama belongs in the Academy Awards hall of fame, but alas, it wasn’t to be.

3

Hugh Jackman – Prisoners (2013)

As Keller Dover

Prisoners Movie Poster

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Prisoners

R

Drama

Mystery

Thriller

ScreenRant logo

8/10

7.6/10

Release Date

September 20, 2013

Runtime

153 minutes

Director

Denis Villeneuve

Writers

Aaron Guzikowski

Cast

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  • Hugh Jackman Profile Picture

    Hugh Jackman

  • Headshot Of Jake Gyllenhaal

    Jake Gyllenhaal

After getting tired of waiting for the police to find the person responsible for taking two young girls, Keller Rover takes the law into his own hands to get the answers he wants. This crime drama was directed by Denis Villeneuve and stars Hugh Jackman (Keller Rover), Jake Gyllenhaal (Detective Loki), and Terrence Howard (Franklin Birch).

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Another great actor who, surprisingly, has only one Oscar nomination despite having an impressive roster of performances is Hugh Jackman. Apart from his role in Les Misérables, Jackman has never been nominated for an Academy Award, despite delivering powerhouse performances throughout his career, including in Denis Villeneuve’s Prisoners the same year as his nomination. Despite being a fantastic slow-burn thriller and Villeneuve’s third amazing movie after two good ones, it was largely unrecognized at the Oscars, except for a nomination for Roger Deakins’ cinematography.

While the other two main actors in Prisoners at least have one Academy Award nomination, Paul Dano is yet to be nominated for an Oscar, despite brilliant performances in other great movies like There Will Be Blood, Little Miss Sunshine, The Batman, and The Fabelmans.

Hugh Jackman plays Keller Dover, whose daughter gets kidnapped on a lazy afternoon. The distraught father starts pursuing his own investigation because he has lost faith in the police. He kidnaps his primary suspect and brutally tortures him in the hope of finding his daughter. Paul Dano as the suspect, Jackman, and Jake Gyllenhaal as the unraveling detective assigned to the case, each deliver career-defining performances. Jackman particularly gives us one of the best male leading performances of the 2010s, and he shouldn’t have been snubbed.

2

Pam Grier – Jackie Brown (1997)

As Jackie Brown

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Jackie Brown

R

Thriller

Drama

Crime

ScreenRant logo

9/10

10/10

Release Date

December 25, 1997

Runtime

154 minutes

Director

Quentin Tarantino

Writers

Quentin Tarantino

Cast

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  • Cast Placeholder Image

    Bridget Fonda

  • Headshot Of Michael Keaton In The Los Angeles Special Screening Of 'Knox Goes Away'

    Michael Keaton

Jackie Brown is a 1997 crime thriller directed by Quentin Tarantino. Pam Grier stars as a flight attendant who outsmarts the authorities, her boss, and a ruthless killer after smuggling cash for a gunrunner. The movie counts with an all-star cast that includes Samuel L. Jackson, Robert De Niro, Robert Forster, Michael Keaton, and Bridget Fonda.

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Jurnee Smollett’s snub for being a rising child actress wasn’t the only Oscar snub of a Black actress in 1998. One of the most infamous snubs in Academy Awards history occurred that year, when Pam Grier didn’t get a nomination for portraying the titular Jackie Brown in Tarantino’s Jackie Brown. Despite Robert Forster getting an Oscar nomination, both Pam Grier and Samuel L. Jackson were snubbed.

Pam Grier is America’s first female action hero.

A pioneer of the blaxploitation genre of films, Pam Grier is America’s first female action hero, and Tarantino’s film is like a love letter to her career as a leading lady in action cinema. It is criminal that Grier was snubbed for her last lead performance as a flight attendant who deals with criminals. Based on Elmore Leonard’s novel Rum Punch, the movie gives Grier a stage as a veteran, 25 years into her career, to showcase her skills, highlighting her impressive presence as an action star and her ability to portray complex emotional moments.

1

James McAvoy – Split (2016)

As Kevin

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Split

PG-13

Horror

Thriller

ScreenRant logo

7/10

8.5/10

Release Date

September 26, 2016

Runtime

1h 57m

Director

M. Night Shyamalan

Writers

M. Night Shyamalan

Prequel(s)

Unbreakable

Cast

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  • Headshot Of Kim Director

    Kim Director

  • Headshot Of Betty Buckley

    Betty Buckley

M. Night Shyamalan’s Split follows Kevin Wendell Crumb (James McAvoy), a man with dissociative identity disorder, who kidnaps three teenage girls and imprisons them in an underground facility. When Casey (Anya Taylor-Joy) realizes that she can play Crumb’s personalities against one another, she begins to form a plan for escape before she is sacrificed to a creature he refers to as “the Beast”. 

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Once a celebrated director known for his famous twist endings, a string of underwhelming movies has permanently ruined M. Night Shyamalan’s reputation. He has, however, consistently put out movies over the years, and many of them are good, a few even excellent. Among his underrated movies is the third part to his Unbreakable trilogy, which features James McAvoy as the main character Kevin.

Imagery from American Psycho and Drive

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Some of the best psychological thrillers, action satires, and horror movies feature great unhinged protagonists.

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Kevin has dissociative identity disorders with 23 known personalities and a 24th waiting to manifest, known as The Beast. An intense thriller, Split follows Casey, a girl who is kidnapped by Kevin along with her friends. McAvoy expertly portrays the various personalities that live inside Kevin, seamlessly switching from one to the other. His performance in Split is perhaps the best thriller movie performance in the history of the genre, and it should have earned him an Oscar nomination at least, if not a win.