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The Top 100 Performances by a Female Actor
- Maria (Renee) Falconetti – The Passion of the Joan of Arc
- Juliette Binoche – Three Colours: Blue
- Emily Watson – Breaking the Waves
- Gena Rowlands – A Woman Under the Influence
- Maggie Cheung – In the Mood for Love
- Natalie Portman – Black Swan
- Giulietta Masina – La Strada
- Ingrid Bergman – Casablanca
- Naomi Watts – Mulholland Drive
- Isabelle Huppert – The Piano Teacher
- Anna Karina – Vivre Sa Vie
- Anna Magnani – Rome, Open City
- Frances McDormand – Fargo
- Barbara Stanwyck – Double Indemnity
- Ellen Burstyn – Requiem for a Dream
- Charlize Theron – Mad Max: Fury Road
- Mia Farrow – Rosemary’s Baby
- Ingrid Bergman – Notorious
- Katharine Hepburn – Bringing Up Baby
- Elizabeth Taylor – Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?
- Isabelle Adjani – Possession
- Liv Ullmann – Persona
- Gong Li – Raise the Red Lantern
- Björk – Dancer in the Dark
- Faye Wong – Chungking Express
- Emmanuelle Riva – Hiroshima Mon Amour
- Judy Garland – The Wizard of Oz
- Vivian Leigh – Gone with the Wind
- Julianne Moore – Safe
- Giulietta Masina – Juliet of the Spirits
- Catherine Deneuve – Repulsion
- Deborah Kerr- The Innocents
- Meryl Streep – Sophie’s Choice
- Jeanne Moreau – Jules and Jim
- Monica Vitti – Red Desert
- Anna Karina – Pierrot le Fou
- Diane Keaton – Annie Hall
- Bette Davis – All About Eve
- Kate Winslet – Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
- Julie Delpy – Before Sunset
- Madhabi Mukherjee – Charulata
- Tilda Swinton – Orlando
- Liza Minnelli – Cabaret
- Isabella Rossellini – Blue Velvet
- Lillian Gish – The Wind
- Anne Bancroft – The Graduate
- Joanna Kulig – Cold War
- Kirsten Dunst – Melancholia
- Jodie Foster – The Silence of the Lambs
- Emma Stone – La La Land
- Kim Novak – Vertigo
- Anamaria Marinca – 4 Months, 3 Weeks, 2 Days
- Monica Vitti – L’Eclisse
- Jean Seberg – Breathless
- Uma Thurman – Pulp Fiction
- Corinne Marchand – Cleo from 5 to 7
- Holly Hunter – The Piano
- Tilda Swinton – We Need to Talk About Kevin
- Florence Pugh – Midsommar
- Franka Potente – Run Lola Run
- Scarlett Johansson – Lost in Translation
- Gloria Swanson – Sunset Boulevard
- Sigourney Weaver – Aliens
- Claudette Colbert – It Happened One Night
- Sissy Spacek – Carrie
- Liv Ullmann – Scenes from a Marriage
- Judy Garland – A Star is Born
- Ingrid Thulin – Winter Light
- Ellen Burstyn – The Exorcist
- Kinuyo Tanaka – Life of Oharu
- Cathy Moriarty – Raging Bull
- Nora Gregor – The Rules of the Game
- Lorraine Bracco – Goodfellas
- Carmen Maura – Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown
- Kinuyo Tanaka – A Hen in the Wind
- Marlene Dietrich – Morocco
- Audrey Tautou – Amelie
- Joan Fontaine – Letter from an Unknown Woman
- Alida Valli – The Third Man
- Hanna Schygulla – The Marriage of Maria Braun
- Julie Delpy – Before Midnight
- Thelma Ritter – Pickup on South Street
- Danielle Darrieux – The Earrings of Madame De…
- Janet Gaynor – Sunrise
- Toni Collette – Hereditary
- Joan Crawford – Johnny Guitar
- Shirley MacLaine – The Apartment
- Julianne Moore – Boogie Nights
- Bibi Andersson – Persona
- Julianne Moore – Far from Heaven
- Cate Blanchett – Carol
- Hilary Swank – Million Dollar Baby
- Rachel Weisz – The Deep Blue Sea
- Jane Fonda – Klute
- Rosamund Pike – Gone Girl
- Kathleen Turner – Body Heat
- Olivia Colman – The Favourite
- Penelope Cruz – Broken Embraces
- Jessie Buckley – I’m Thinking of Ending Things
- Annie Girardot – Rocco and His Brothers
Drake2023-03-21T10:39:49+00:00
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Wow! Amazing work. Although I expected that you might put Jeanne Moreau’s performance atleast in your top 30. Anyways, what a fantastic list.
@Alt Mash – appreciate the comment and the kind words
Wowww!!! That’s a really really really amazing list. I think the most perfect list ranking best performances.
Julianne Moore ends up with maximum mentions here with 3.
I’m surprised by the love for Anna Karina. Wow. Also Juliette Binoche in Blue. Wow.
Also I’ll have Mia Farrow 10-15 slots higher.
@M*A*S*H- Very nice of you to say – thank you!
Great list! Must be real hard coming up with this many performances together. It’s also really nice having this list as a way to give shine to many talents that didn’t make the cut for the other top 100 (but might be there one day)..
@Harry- Thank you Harry- I did have a hard time putting this together actually. I’m sure I’ll look at it in a week and find some problems with it.
great list drake…your site is a go2 for me cant wait for your updated top 500!!
@Jerry Wingo- Thank you very much- appreciate you visiting the site
Not a single Faye Dunaway performance? I’m stunned, her top 3 would all be within my top 50
@Ce- I know- I thought the same thing about Dunaway when I first finished it. I still feel good about her ranking on the overall list- I think she would have three in the top 150 performances.
Just seems wild to me that Jane Fonda and some others in lesser films get mentions when she’s a top all time actress. Network is such a killer role, I have a hard time buying several of these choices over her work in that film especially. No disrespect I just thought it was an oversight
Awesome! Great list. Surprised Faye Wong made it so high when she’s not in your top 100 female actors but it’s definitely well deserved.
@Bob- Thank you Bob- I could be missing something in her filmography- but I believe she is largely a one-hit wonder with or a two-hit wonder with 2046
Wow this is amazing… i have been wondering what ur picks were for a very long time
Fantastic job as always Drake. Interesting to see the more modern picks on here as well, and how there seems to be a larger quantity of great female roles and performances in more recent years. I notice the most recent one on here is Jessie Buckley for I’m Thinking of Ending Things – just wondering, did you take 2022 performances into consideration at all, or not really since you haven’t put a page up yet? I don’t want to speak too soon but I have a strong feeling Cate Blanchett is destined to end up on this list for Tár one day.
@DeclanG- Thank you very much. I have seen Tar- and Blanchett is exceptional in it- I just was not ready at least at this point to include her. Safe to say that for now I think say Buckley’s performance is stronger.
So happy to see this be done I know it’s been requested of you for a long time but I didn’t know if it would ever happen. Seems like it could be the hardest of all your lists to make there’s just so many great performances in cinema history.
@James Robbins- Thank you James- always look forward to your comments
Great list. I’m not sure about Portman in the top 10 & Binoche in the top 2.
My personal top 50 of the best performances by a female actor :
1/ Maria Falconetti – The Passion of Joan of Arc
2/ Ingrid Bergman – Notorious
3/ Mia Farrow – Rosemary’s Baby
4/ Emily Watson – Breaking the Waves
5/ Judy Garland – The Wizard of Oz
6/ Giulietta Masina – La Strada
7/ Catherine Deneuve – Repulsion
8/ Liv Ullman – Persona
9/ Frances McDormand – Fargo
10/ Gena Rowlands – A Woman Under Influence
11 / Ana Magnani – Rome, Open City
12/ Juliette Binoche – Blue
13/ Monica Vitti – Red Desert
14/ Jeanne Moreau – Jules & Jim
15/ Maggie Cheung – In the Mood for Love
16/ Ingrid Bergman – Casablanca
17/ Barbara Stanwyck – Double Indemnity
18/ Kirsten Dunst – Melancholia
19/ Naomi Watts – Mulholland Drive
20/ Ana Karina – Pierrot le fou
21/ Bette Davis – All About Eve
22/ Gloria Swanson – Sunset Boulevard
23/ Giulietta Masina – Juliet of the Spirits
24/ Catherine Deneuve – Les Parapluies de Cherbourg
25/ Diane Keaton – Annie Hall
26/ Natalie Portman – Black Swann
27/ Isabelle Adjani – Possession
28/ Isabelle Huppert – The Piano Teacher
29/ Gong Li – Raise the Red Lantern
30/ Bjork – Dancer in the Dark
31/ Meryl Streep – Sophie’s Choice
32/ Julianne Moore – Boogie Nights
33/ Faye Dunaway – Network
34/ Elizabeth Taylor – Who Is Afraid of Virginia Wolf?
35/ Katharine Hepburn – Bringing Up Baby
36/ Barbara Stanwyck – Lady Eve
37/ Kate Winslet – Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
38/ Jodie Foster – The Silence of the Lambs
39/ Emma Stone – La La Land
40/ Louise Fletcher – One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest
41/ Julianne Moore – Safe
42/ Ellen Burstyn – Requiem for a Dream
43/ Vivien Leigh – Gone with the Wind
44/ Emmanuelle Riva – Hiroshima mon amour
45/ Sissy Spacek – Carrie
46/ Jane Fonda – Klute
47/ Jeanne Moreau – Elevator of the Gallows
48/ Faye Wong – Chungking Express
49/ Anne Bancroft – The Graduate
50/ Shelley Duvall – The Shining
This.. this is perfect. Your top 10 is just impeccable
I love seeing Rosalind Pike. Even with its strong reviews upon release I still do not think this film gets as much praise as it deserves. Amy Dunne is easily one of the greatest female Villains of all time and an all around complex character. Well written for sure but it’s Pike who really takes it to another level.
*Rosamund Pike
I happened to watch Gone Girl yesterday for the third time and couldn’t agree more with your statement, she’s a great of our generation but she needs better films to keep shining like that.
@JeyNeo – I would love to see her in more quality films. She would fit right into a great neo-noir film, hopefully she will work with some more auteurs. I will never complain about a Cate Blanchett performance but I think Rosamund Pike would have been perfect in the 2021 Nightmare Alley remake playing the Dr. Lilith Ritter
@James Trapp- I love that casting. I’m not sure how big Pike’s role is, but she is in Emerald Fennell (Promising Young Woman) Saltburn coming out soon
@Drake – thanks for the heads up, it was not on my radar. I was really impressed with Promising Young Woman (2021). Perhaps a potential auteur/actress duo
@Drake-Smh. Why did Emmanuelle Riva not make the top 100 actresses? She is not a one-hit wonder. She has another strong performance in a top 10 film Amour(2012). A bizzare exclusion that’s for sure.
Another big exclusion is Jean Seberg. Whose 2nd best performance(Lilith) may actually be stronger than Riva’s.
@Malith- Seberg was certainly considered as well.
I think both Riva and Seberg get in around 80-100 for me. I would take out Judi Dench and Helena Bonham Carter to make room for them.
@Malith- Thank you for sharing. They were considered for sure. I think they fit well in that 101-125 range.
@Malith- She’s close to a one-hit wonder. Riva is a fine actor of course- there were simply other actors with a stronger case.
@Drake-A strong performance in a top 10 of the year film(Amour) as your 2nd best performance doesn’t sound like a one-hit wonder me.
@Malith- “close” is in my last comment. But no, there are a thousand acting performances that are in top 10 of the year quality films by definition.
So you don’t think highly of Riva’s performance in Amour(2012)? This isn’t the reason she should be on the list. This paired with her Hiroshima Mon Amour performance makes her a good candidate to land somewhere between 80-100.
@Malith- her overall case falls in line closer with those just off the top 100 of the list
A lot of actresses not included in the main list are included here. Interesting.
1.Björk – Dancer in the Dark
2.Faye Wong – Chungking Express
3.Emmanuelle Riva – Hiroshima Mon Amour
4.Madhabi Mukherjee – Charulata
5.Isabella Rossellini – Blue Velvet
6.Joanna Kulig – Cold War
7.Anamaria Marinca – 4 Months, 3 Weeks, 2 Days
8.Jean Seberg – Breathless
9.Corinne Marchand – Cleo from 5 to 7
10.Florence Pugh – Midsommar
11.Franka Potente – Run Lola Run
12.Gloria Swanson – Sunset Boulevard
13.Cathy Moriarty – Raging Bull
14.Nora Gregor – The Rules of the Game
15.Lorraine Bracco – Goodfellas
16.Carmen Maura – Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown
17.Danielle Darrieux – The Earrings of Madame De…
18.Toni Collette – Hereditary
19.Rosamund Pike – Gone Girl
20.Kathleen Turner – Body Heat
21.Olivia Colman – The Favourite
22.Jessie Buckley – I’m Thinking of Ending Things
23.Annie Girardot – Rocco and His Brothers
@Malith- Yes, sort of the difference between one performance and an overall resume
@Malith- thank you for the clean up fix here
63 of these Top 100 Female Performances wasn’t nominated at the Oscars. Crazy