20 Incredible Performances From 2015

5) Mark Rylance in Bridge of Spies

He’s adored by Sean Penn, Al Pacino and Steven Spielberg. The last one’s obvious – Spielberg just cast Mark Rylance as his BFG, after directing him to a likely Oscar nomination (and heavy favorite win) in Bridge of Spies. But some of the best actors in the world – people like Penn, and Pacino – consider Rylance to be the best actor in the world, and you’d probably never even heard of him until this last year.

Thank Steven Spielberg, then, for coaxing Rylance off the stage (his natural home; he’s a three-time Tony Award winner) and giving him his first major mainstream movie role in Bridge of Spies. As Soviet agent Rudolf Abel, Rylance is the film’s softly-spoken, warm-hearted core, the embodiment of a good man. His movements, his facial expressions are almost infinitesimal – it’s the kind of subtle, mannered performance that so few actors dare try, and even less succeed in making work.