Though I’m less sure of the overall quality of TV and film throughout 2025 so far, there has been no shortage of great performances across both mediums. Here are the best of the year so far from film and television.

Honorable Mentions:

• Cate Blanchett, Black Bag
• Michael Cera, The Phoenician Scheme
• Tom Cruise, Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning
• Lewis Pullman, Thunderbolts*
• Bella Ramsey, The Last of Us
• Tim Robinson, Friendship
• Stellan Skarsgård, Andor
• Sophie Thatcher, Companion
• Tramell Tillman, Severance
• Noah Wyle, The Pitt

Radhika Apte, Sister Midnight

Radhika Apte occupies almost every minute of Sister Midnight, and her presence goes a long way in selling writer-director Karan Kandhari’s uniquely bonkers vision. The film walks a delicate tightrope between dry humor, sincere drama, and surrealist experimentation, and Apte handles it all with constrained subtlety. As a new housewife in a new city, with an arranged marriage foisted upon her, Apte portrays all the loneliness and uncertainty that comes along with it. Whether navigating her marital tensions, friendships with a neighbor, a new job, finding a purpose, or whatever magical realism Kandhari pulls out, Sister Midnight rides its own unique wavelength with Apte at the center.

Michael B. Jordan, Sinners

Michael B. Jordan and Ryan Coogler’s creative partnership continues to pay off in spades, and Sinners has been the definitive box office story of the year so far thanks to Jordan’s dynamic dual performance. As twin brothers in the Jim Crow south, Jordan imbues both personas with enough depth and humanity to get past the gimmicky conceit. It helps that the pair spend a decent portion of the film apart, but Jordan’s work in distinguishing their mannerisms and personalities works to avoid mistaking one for the other. Coogler mashes genres, including horror, drama, comedy, and a treatise on racism, all while making the experience feel new and exciting. Jordan has given plenty of Oscar-worthy performances – from Black Panther to Fruitvale Station – but Sinners may be his crowning achievement so far in one of 2025’s best films.

Britt Lower, Severance

As you can see from this list, dual performances were all the rage in the first half of 2025, but Severance season 2 offered a unique take on the phenomenon, and none were better utilized than in Britt Lower’s performance. The first half of the season presented fans with an intriguing mystery: was Helly R actually Helena Eagan posing as an innie to infiltrate the MDR team? That Lower was able to successfully pull it off, along with the emotional journey both sides of her went through throughout the rest of season 2, helped her to stand out from the number of great performances in the show. Severance got weirder, more mysterious (and important), and more emotional in its sophomore effort, but it never forgot that its characters came first. While innie Helly fought for her own agency and wrestled with the knowledge that she’s an Eagan, Helena appeared like a lovesick teenager, yearning for the affections of Mark (Adam Scott) through any means necessary. With the love triangle (or whatever shape applies) at the heart of season 2, Lower’s role looks to be even more central in season 3, and her performance this year proved she could shoulder the show’s hefty themes and ideas.

Robert Pattinson, Mickey 17

Mickey 17 made for a perfect marriage of Bong Joon-ho’s anti-capitalist sensibilities and Robert Pattinson’s weirdo energy. The film may have been a bit of a grounding after the masterpiece of Parasite, but it was no less funny or poignant. Pattinson has always worked best when leaving his ego at the door of any given project, and director Bong’s latest sci-fi adaptation shows him at the bottom of the economic totem pole. As Mickey, a disposable clone used for human experiments who can be regenerated after dying, Pattinson shows a man desperate for a place to belong and contribute in a meaningful way. But things get complicated further once Mickey is replicated again before the original dies, and Pattinson is given the space to let loose. The dual performance allows him to channel two sides of the same coin, making one version reckless and the other more cautious. Dual performances can easily make for a cheap gimmick in film, but Pattinson channeled something deeper, giving one of the best performances in an already great career.

Patrick Schwarzenegger, The White Lotus

I left less enthusiastic than I’d hoped for The White Lotus season 3 overall, but Patrick Schwarzenegger’s performance was an unexpected highlight. Mike White’s third descent into the champagne problems of the one percent faltered compared to seasons 1 and 2 because of a lack of complex characters, but Schwarzenegger’s Saxon Ratliff was captivating to watch every week.  What began as a textbook case of a self-obsessed finance bro with no concerns beyond who he’d be sleeping with that night, slowly morphed into someone actively seeking his own enlightenment. The central hook of the show has always been whether these contemptible characters are capable of change, and there has perhaps never been a character as contemptible as Schwarzenegger’s. Arnold’s son channeled the inner loneliness of living in your father’s shadows and having zero interests or ideas besides what’s been handed to you since birth. But somehow Schwarzenegger found an inner depth beneath Saxon – aided by Aimee Lou Wood’s Chelsea – and I found myself genuinely concerned for his well-being by the final episode. The White Lotus season 3 was likely the world’s first exposure to Patrick Schwarzenegger, but his performance showed he could easily have a bright career ahead of him.