An absolute triumph of performative cool and psychological heat. Huppert, at the peak of her inimitable gifts, wields her dry wit like a whip, whether snapping at co-stars or self-flagellating. Bonus points: Things to Come

Larrain frames her with claustrophobic precision but she rewards him with Jackie's performative stiffness and multiple colors within that bizarre inimitable voice. Best of all is her resting face in tight grieving closeup: both stupor and maelstrom.

Finalists: Amy Adams is luminously intelligent but still mystified by earth-changing circumstances in Arrival. Even more impressive is how she radiates preternatural empathy, totally selling the 'aliens would trust her' narrative leap; Emma Stone charms in La La Land and really delivers with full charismatic movie stardom with "Audition (The Fools Who Dream)" -- (What a year for Best Actress. Breaks my heart not to have a seven-wide list!)

Semi-Finalists: Jessica Chastain in Miss Sloane, Meryl Streep in Florence Foster Jenkins, Sandra Húller in Toni Erdmann, Ruth Negga in Loving, and Emily Blunt running drunk circles around The Girl on the Train

Viggo excels as this intellectually rugged idealist who's a contradiction of rigidity in his rejection of conformity. The slow dawning that his children are more than extensions of himself is moving. He's losing them before they leave him.

Bless him for capturing this towering nattering performance of a frustrated loser. Self-aggrandazing and self-pitying in equal measure, Denzel breathes majestic life into this tragic iconic August Wilson character.

Finalists: Colin Farrell's mastery of The Lobster's unusual tone is something else. So pitiable but funny, too, especially in his micro-aggressions against his absurd situation

Semi Finalists: Shahab Hosseini in The Salesman, Adam Driver in Paterson, Chris Pine in Hell or High Water, Michael Fassbender in The Light Between Oceans, Peter Simonscek in Toni Erdmann, and Sunny Pawar in Lion

This very 21st century star is a huge boon to this memoir as the connective tissue between adults (past) and kids (future). Gerwig is juggling a lot here -- childwoman spirit, health problems, creative drive -- but feels utterly spontaneous. Bonus pts: "men·stru·a·tion"

Three distinct dazzling views of the same addict; Watch as she recedes from larger than life theatrical (the child's view) to fading pitied obstacle (her son now a teenager) and finally to something like a grieving touchstone, with shared history. What was lost in her private war?

Yes, she gets a showcase monologue that obliterates the traditional confines of similar "sad mother" roles. But she's perfect before that too, emanating heaps of love and affection but the pained tenacity of metering it out carefully; she knows it's a long haul.

Finalists: Kate Dickie is agonizingly self-flagellating and pious in The Witch; Olivia Colman perfectly sells the satiric vision of The Lobster. Her comedy is so cruelly deadpan it never betrays its pulse and would judge you for having one; and Rossy de Palma is so perfect as the distrustful housekeeper in Julieta that you want to follow her into her own side movie whenever she walks offscreen.

Semi-Finalists: Molly Shannon in Other People, Antonia Zeggers in The Club, Octavia Spencer in Hidden Figures, Gugu Mbatha Raw in Ms Sloane, and Michelle Williams in Manchester by the Sea

A remarkable feat of playing dumb within a very smart movie. Sir Martin never knows what to say but can't stop saying it. Bonus points for that thoroughly unexamined happiness: in this case ignorance is bliss.

From the moment he first pivots to the camera, huge cowboy hat framing a dim but endearingly guileless movie starmug, he's stolen the picture as effortlessly as Doyle is effortful once he's in a tux.

Best known for magnificently pained stiff men, Harry is a shaggy let it all hang out 180. Fiennes aces that familiar if rare push and pull of your friend with the personality so intense its both irresistible and exhausting.

Finalists: Stephen Henderson is lived in, relatable, and nuanced, particularly when he pushes back against the role he's usually willing to play for his best friend in Fences; Jeff Bridges is utterly Jeff Bridgesian in Hell or High Water but this is always a good thing in the proper context -- he's especially good at revealing affection for his partner (Gil Birmingham, also strong) while always keeping him at a ribbing distance; Finally Billy Crudup does his best work in years as a sweet directionless handyman who lets those 20th Century Women come to him.

Semi Finalists:John Goodman for 10 Cloverfield Lane, Ralph Ineson in The Witch, Michael Shannon in Nocturnal Animals, and Lucas Hedges in Manchester by the Sea