# Satellite Award for Best Actor in a Motion Picture

The Satellite Award for Best Actor in a Motion Picture is an annual award given by the International Press Academy as one of its Satellite Awards. The category has gone through several changes since its inception.
* From 1996 to 2010, two categories based on genre were presented, Best Actor – Motion Picture Drama and Best Actor – Motion Picture Comedy or Musical
* In 2011, the IPA pared down its Satellite nominations in the motion picture categories from 22 to 19 classifications; the change reflects the merger of drama and comedy under a general Best Picture heading, including the Best Actor/Actress headings and the Supporting headings.
* In 2016 and 2017, two winners were announced within the Best Actor category, one for the performance by an actor in a major studio film and other for a performance in an independent film.
Since 2018, the two categories based on genre are presented replacing the Best Actor in a Motion Picture category for the Best Actor – Motion Picture Drama and Best Actor – Motion Picture Comedy or Musical categories previously presented.

## Winners and nominees
### Best Actor – Motion Picture Drama (1996–2010, 2018–present)

| Year | Actor | Film | Role |
| 1996 | Geoffrey Rush | Shine | David Helfgott |
| 1996 | William H. Macy | Fargo | Jerry Lundegaard |
| 1996 | Christopher Eccleston | Jude | Jude Fawley |
| 1996 | Ralph Fiennes | The English Patient | László Almásy |
| 1996 | Billy Bob Thornton | Sling Blade | Karl Childers |
| 1996 | James Woods | Killer: A Journal of Murder | Carl Panzram |
| 1997 | Robert Duvall | The Apostle | Euliss "Sonny" Dewey / The Apostle E.F. |
| 1997 | Russell Crowe | L.A. Confidential | Officer Wendell "Bud" White |
| 1997 | Mark Wahlberg | Boogie Nights | Eddie Adams ("Dirk Diggler") |
| 1997 | Djimon Hounsou | Amistad | Sengbe Pieh / Joseph Cinqué |
| 1997 | Leonardo DiCaprio | Titanic | Jack Dawson |
| 1997 | Matt Damon | Good Will Hunting | Will Hunting |
| 1998 | Edward Norton | American History X | Derek Vinyard |
| 1998 | Stephen Fry | Wilde | Oscar Wilde |
| 1998 | Brendan Gleeson | The General | Martin Cahill |
| 1998 | Derek Jacobi | Love Is the Devil: Study for a Portrait of Francis Bacon | Francis Bacon |
| 1998 | Ian McKellen | Gods and Monsters | James Whale |
| 1998 | Nick Nolte | Affliction | Wade Whitehouse |
| 1999 | Terence Stamp | The Limey | Wilson |
| 1999 | Kevin Spacey | American Beauty | Lester Burnham |
| 1999 | Russell Crowe | The Insider | Dr. Jeffrey Wigand |
| 1999 | Richard Farnsworth | The Straight Story | Alvin Straight |
| 1999 | Al Pacino | The Insider | Lowell Bergman |
| 1999 | Denzel Washington | The Hurricane | Rubin "Hurricane" Carter |
| 2000 | Geoffrey Rush | Quills | Marquis de Sade |
| 2000 | Jamie Bell | Billy Elliot | Billy Elliot |
| 2000 | Sean Connery | Finding Forrester | William Forrester |
| 2000 | Russell Crowe | Gladiator | Maximus Decimus Meridius |
| 2000 | Ed Harris | Pollock | Jackson Pollock |
| 2000 | Denzel Washington | Remember the Titans | Herman Boone |
| 2001 | Brian Cox | L.I.E. | Big John Harrigan |
| 2001 | Russell Crowe | A Beautiful Mind | John Forbes Nash Jr. |
| 2001 | Guy Pearce | Memento | Leonard Shelby |
| 2001 | Sean Penn | I Am Sam | Sam Dawson |
| 2001 | Billy Bob Thornton | Monster's Ball | Hank Grotowski |
| 2001 | Denzel Washington | Training Day | Detective Alonzo Harris |
| 2002 | Michael Caine | The Quiet American | Thomas Fowler |
| 2002 | Daniel Day-Lewis | Gangs of New York | William "Bill the Butcher" Cutting |
| 2002 | Tom Hanks | Road to Perdition | Michael Sullivan |
| 2002 | Jack Nicholson | About Schmidt | Warren Schmidt |
| 2002 | Edward Norton | 25th Hour | Monty Brogan |
| 2002 | Robin Williams | One Hour Photo | Seymour Parrish |
| 2003 | Sean Penn | 21 Grams | Paul Rivers |
| 2003 | Sean Penn | Mystic River | Jimmy Markum |
| 2003 | Paddy Considine | In America | Johnny Sullivan |
| 2003 | Hayden Christensen | Shattered Glass | Stephen Glass |
| 2003 | Tom Cruise | The Last Samurai | Cpt. Nathan Algren |
| 2003 | Jude Law | Cold Mountain | W. P. Inman |
| 2003 | William H. Macy | The Cooler | Bernie Lootz |
| 2004 | Don Cheadle | Hotel Rwanda | Paul Rusesabagina |
| 2004 | Kevin Bacon | The Woodsman | Walter |
| 2004 | Javier Bardem | The Sea Inside (Mar adentro) | Ramón Sampedro |
| 2004 | Johnny Depp | Finding Neverland | J. M. Barrie |
| 2004 | Gael García Bernal | The Motorcycle Diaries (Diarios de motocicleta) | Ernesto Guevara de la Serna |
| 2004 | Liam Neeson | Kinsey | Dr. Alfred Kinsey |
| 2005 | Philip Seymour Hoffman | Capote | Truman Capote |
| 2005 | Jake Gyllenhaal | Jarhead | LCpl./PFC. Anthony Swofford |
| 2005 | Heath Ledger | Brokeback Mountain | Ennis Del Mar |
| 2005 | Tommy Lee Jones | The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada | Pete Perkins |
| 2005 | Viggo Mortensen | A History of Violence | Tom Stall / Joey Cusack |
| 2005 | David Strathairn | Good Night, and Good Luck | Edward R. Murrow |
| 2006 | Forest Whitaker | The Last King of Scotland | Idi Amin |
| 2006 | Leonardo DiCaprio | Blood Diamond | Danny Archer |
| 2006 | Ryan Gosling | Half Nelson | Dan Dunne |
| 2006 | Joshua Jackson | Aurora Borealis | Duncan Shorter |
| 2006 | Derek Luke | Catch a Fire | Patrick Chamusso |
| 2006 | Patrick Wilson | Little Children | Brad Adamson |
| 2007 | Viggo Mortensen | Eastern Promises | Nikolai Luzhin |
| 2007 | Josh Brolin | No Country for Old Men | Llewelyn Moss |
| 2007 | Christian Bale | Rescue Dawn | Dieter Dengler |
| 2007 | Tommy Lee Jones | In the Valley of Elah | Hank Deerfield |
| 2007 | Frank Langella | Starting Out in the Evening | Leonard Schiller |
| 2007 | Denzel Washington | American Gangster | Frank Lucas |
| 2008 | Richard Jenkins | The Visitor | Walter Vale |
| 2008 | Frank Langella | Frost/Nixon | Richard Nixon |
| 2008 | Leonardo DiCaprio | Revolutionary Road | Frank Wheeler |
| 2008 | Sean Penn | Milk | Harvey Milk |
| 2008 | Mickey Rourke | The Wrestler | Robin Ramzinski / Randy "The Ram" Robinson |
| 2008 | Mark Ruffalo | What Doesn't Kill You | Brian Reilly |
| 2009 | Jeremy Renner | The Hurt Locker | SFC. William James |
| 2009 | Jeff Bridges | Crazy Heart | Otis "Bad" Blake |
| 2009 | Hugh Dancy | Adam | Adam Raki |
| 2009 | Johnny Depp | Public Enemies | John Dillinger |
| 2009 | Colin Firth | A Single Man | George Falconer |
| 2009 | Michael Sheen | The Damned United | Brian Clough |
| 2010 | Colin Firth | The King's Speech | King George VI |
| 2010 | Javier Bardem | Biutiful | Uxbal |
| 2010 | Leonardo DiCaprio | Inception | Dominic "Dom" Cobb |
| 2010 | Michael Douglas | Solitary Man | Ben Kalmen |
| 2010 | Robert Duvall | Get Low | Felix Bush |
| 2010 | Jesse Eisenberg | The Social Network | Mark Zuckerberg |
| 2010 | James Franco | 127 Hours | Aron Ralston |
| 2010 | Ryan Gosling | Blue Valentine | Dean Pereira |
| 2018 | Willem Dafoe | At Eternity's Gate | Vincent van Gogh |
| 2018 | Ben Foster | Leave No Trace | Will |
| 2018 | Ryan Gosling | First Man | Neil Armstrong |
| 2018 | Ethan Hawke | First Reformed | Ernst Toller |
| 2018 | Lucas Hedges | Boy Erased | Jared Eamons |
| 2018 | Robert Redford | The Old Man & the Gun | Forrest Tucker |
| 2019 | Christian Bale | Ford v Ferrari | Ken Miles |
| 2019 | Adam Driver | Marriage Story | Charlie Barber |
| 2019 | Antonio Banderas | Pain and Glory | Salvador Mallo |
| 2019 | George MacKay | 1917 | Lance Corporal William Schofield |
| 2019 | Joaquin Phoenix | Joker | Arthur Fleck / Joker |
| 2019 | Mark Ruffalo | Dark Waters | Robert Bilott |
| 2020 | Riz Ahmed | Sound of Metal | Ruben Stone |
| 2020 | Chadwick Boseman (posthumous) | Ma Rainey's Black Bottom | Levee Green |
| 2020 | Anthony Hopkins | The Father | Anthony |
| 2020 | Delroy Lindo | Da 5 Bloods | Paul |
| 2020 | Gary Oldman | Mank | Herman J. Mankiewicz |
| 2020 | Steven Yeun | Minari | Jacob Yi |
| 2021 | Benedict Cumberbatch | The Power of the Dog | Phil Burbank |
| 2021 | Denzel Washington | The Tragedy of Macbeth | Lord Macbeth |
| 2021 | Clifton Collins Jr. | Jockey | Jackson Silva |
| 2021 | Joaquin Phoenix | C'mon C'mon | Johnny |
| 2021 | Tom Skerritt | East of the Mountains | Ben Givens |
| 2021 | Will Smith | King Richard | Richard Williams |
| 2022 | Brendan Fraser | The Whale | Charlie |
| 2022 | Tom Cruise | Top Gun: Maverick | Captain Pete "Maverick" Mitchell |
| 2022 | Hugh Jackman | The Son | Peter Miller |
| 2022 | Gabriel LaBelle | The Fabelmans | Samuel "Sammy" Fabelman |
| 2022 | Bill Nighy | Living | Mr. Williams |
| 2022 | Mark Wahlberg | Father Stu | Father Stuart "Stu" Long |
| 2023 | Cillian Murphy | Oppenheimer | J. Robert Oppenheimer |
| 2023 | Bradley Cooper | Maestro | Leonard Bernstein |
| 2023 | Leonardo DiCaprio | Killers of the Flower Moon | Ernest Burkhart |
| 2023 | Colman Domingo | Rustin | Bayard Rustin |
| 2023 | Franz Rogowski | Passages | Tomas Freiburg |
| 2023 | Andrew Scott | All of Us Strangers | Adam |
| 2024 | Colman Domingo | Sing Sing | John "Divine G" Whitfield |
| 2024 | Adrien Brody | The Brutalist | László Tóth |
| 2024 | Timothée Chalamet | A Complete Unknown | Bob Dylan |
| 2024 | Daniel Craig | Queer | William Lee |
| 2024 | Ralph Fiennes | Conclave | Thomas Cardinal Lawrence |
| 2024 | Hugh Grant | Heretic | Mr. Reed |

### Best Actor – Motion Picture Musical or Comedy (1996–2010, 2018–present)

| Year | Actor | Film | Role |
| 1996 | Tom Cruise | Jerry Maguire | Jerry Maguire |
| 1996 | Nathan Lane | The Birdcage | Albert Goldman |
| 1996 | Eddie Murphy | The Nutty Professor | Sherman Klump / Various Characters |
| 1996 | Jack Nicholson | Mars Attacks! | James Dale |
| 1996 | Stanley Tucci | Big Night | Secondo |
| 1997 | Jack Nicholson | As Good as It Gets | Melvin Udall |
| 1997 | Robert Carlyle | The Full Monty | Gary "Gaz" Schofield |
| 1997 | Dustin Hoffman | Wag the Dog | Stanley Motss |
| 1997 | Tommy Lee Jones | Men in Black | Kevin Brown / Agent K |
| 1997 | Kevin Kline | In & Out | Howard Brackett |
| 1997 | Howard Stern | Private Parts | Himself |
| 1998 | Ian Bannen | Waking Ned | Jackie O'Shea |
| 1998 | David Kelly | Waking Ned | Michael O'Sullivan |
| 1998 | Warren Beatty | Bulworth | Senator Jay Billington Bulworth |
| 1998 | Jeff Bridges | The Big Lebowski | Jeffrey "The Dude" Lebowski |
| 1998 | Michael Caine | Little Voice | Ray Say |
| 1998 | Robin Williams | Patch Adams | Hunter "Patch" Adams |
| 1999 | Philip Seymour Hoffman | Flawless | Rusty |
| 1999 | Jim Carrey | Man on the Moon | Andy Kaufman |
| 1999 | Johnny Depp | Sleepy Hollow | Ichabod Crane |
| 1999 | Rupert Everett | An Ideal Husband | Arthur Goring |
| 1999 | Sean Penn | Sweet and Lowdown | Emmet Ray |
| 1999 | Steve Zahn | Happy, Texas | Wayne Wayne Wayne Jr. (a.k.a. David) |
| 2000 | Michael Douglas | Wonder Boys | Grady Tripp |
| 2000 | George Clooney | O Brother, Where Art Thou? | Ulysses Everett McGill |
| 2000 | Richard Gere | Dr. T & the Women | Dr. Sullivan Travis (Dr. T) |
| 2000 | Christopher Guest | Best in Show | Harlan Pepper |
| 2000 | Eddie Murphy | Nutty Professor II: The Klumps | Sherman Klump / Various Characters |
| 2000 | Edward Norton | Keeping the Faith | Brian Finn |
| 2001 | Ewan McGregor | Moulin Rouge! | Christian |
| 2001 | Colin Firth | Bridget Jones's Diary | Mark Darcy |
| 2001 | Gene Hackman | The Royal Tenenbaums | Royal Tenenbaum |
| 2001 | John Cameron Mitchell | Hedwig and the Angry Inch | Hansel Schmidt / Hedwig Robinson |
| 2001 | Ben Stiller | Zoolander | Derek Zoolander |
| 2001 | Chris Tucker | Rush Hour 2 | James Carter |
| 2002 | Kieran Culkin | Igby Goes Down | Jason "Igby" Slocumb Jr. |
| 2002 | Nicolas Cage | Adaptation. | Charlie and Donald Kaufman |
| 2002 | Hugh Grant | About a Boy | Will Freeman |
| 2002 | Sam Rockwell | Confessions of a Dangerous Mind | Chuck Barris |
| 2002 | Adam Sandler | Punch-Drunk Love | Barry Egan |
| 2002 | Aaron Stanford | Tadpole | Oscar Grubman |
| 2003 | Bill Murray | Lost in Translation | Bob Harris |
| 2003 | Jack Black | School of Rock | Dewey Finn |
| 2003 | Johnny Depp | Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl | Capt. Jack Sparrow |
| 2003 | Robert Downey Jr. | The Singing Detective | Dan Dark |
| 2003 | Paul Giamatti | American Splendor | Harvey Pekar |
| 2003 | Billy Bob Thornton | Bad Santa | Willie T. Stokes |
| 2004 | Jamie Foxx | Ray | Ray Charles |
| 2004 | Gerard Butler | The Phantom of the Opera | The Phantom |
| 2004 | Jim Carrey | Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind | Joel Barish |
| 2004 | Paul Giamatti | Sideways | Miles Raymond |
| 2004 | Kevin Kline | De-Lovely | Cole Porter |
| 2004 | Bill Murray | The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou | Steve Zissou |
| 2005 | Terrence Howard | Hustle & Flow | DJay |
| 2005 | Kevin Costner | The Upside of Anger | Denny Davies |
| 2005 | Robert Downey Jr. | Kiss Kiss Bang Bang | Harry Lockhart |
| 2005 | Cillian Murphy | Breakfast on Pluto | Patrick "Kitten" Braden |
| 2005 | Bill Murray | Broken Flowers | Don Johnston |
| 2005 | Joaquin Phoenix | Walk the Line | Johnny Cash |
| 2006 | Joseph Cross | Running with Scissors | Augusten Burroughs |
| 2006 | Sacha Baron Cohen | Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan | Borat Sagdiyev |
| 2006 | Aaron Eckhart | Thank You for Smoking | Nick Naylor |
| 2006 | Will Ferrell | Stranger than Fiction | Harold Crick |
| 2006 | Peter O'Toole | Venus | Maurice Russell |
| 2007 | Ryan Gosling | Lars and the Real Girl | Lars Lindstrom |
| 2007 | Don Cheadle | Talk to Me | Ralph Greene Jr. |
| 2007 | Richard Gere | The Hoax | Clifford Irving |
| 2007 | Ben Kingsley | You Kill Me | Frank Falenczyk |
| 2007 | Clive Owen | Shoot 'Em Up | Mr. Smith |
| 2007 | Seth Rogen | Knocked Up | Ben Stone |
| 2008 | Ricky Gervais | Ghost Town | Bertram Pincus |
| 2008 | Josh Brolin | W. | George W. Bush |
| 2008 | Michael Cera | Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist | Nick O'Leary |
| 2008 | Brendan Gleeson | In Bruges | Ken Daley |
| 2008 | Sam Rockwell | Choke | Victor Mancini |
| 2008 | Mark Ruffalo | The Brothers Bloom | Stephen |
| 2009 | Michael Stuhlbarg | A Serious Man | Larry Gopnik |
| 2009 | George Clooney | Up in the Air | Ryan Bingham |
| 2009 | Bradley Cooper | The Hangover | Phil Wenneck |
| 2009 | Matt Damon | The Informant! | Mark Whitacre |
| 2009 | Daniel Day-Lewis | Nine | Guido Contini |
| 2010 | Michael Cera | Scott Pilgrim vs. the World | Scott Pilgrim |
| 2010 | Steve Carell | Dinner for Schmucks | Barry Speck |
| 2010 | Romain Duris | Heartbreaker | Alex Lippi |
| 2010 | Andy García | City Island | Vince Rizzo |
| 2010 | Jake Gyllenhaal | Love & Other Drugs | Jamie Randall |
| 2010 | John Malkovich | Red | Marvin Boggs |
| 2010 | John C. Reilly | Cyrus | John Kilpatrick |
| 2018 | Rami Malek | Bohemian Rhapsody | Freddie Mercury |
| 2018 | Bradley Cooper | A Star Is Born | Jackson Maine |
| 2018 | Lin-Manuel Miranda | Mary Poppins Returns | Jack |
| 2018 | Viggo Mortensen | Green Book | Frank "Tony Lip" Vallelonga |
| 2018 | Nick Robinson | Love, Simon | Simon Spier |
| 2018 | John David Washington | BlacKkKlansman | Detective Ron Stallworth |
| 2019 | Taron Egerton | Rocketman | Elton John |
| 2019 | Daniel Craig | Knives Out | Detective Benoit Blanc |
| 2019 | Leonardo DiCaprio | Once Upon a Time in Hollywood | Rick Dalton |
| 2019 | Eddie Murphy | Dolemite Is My Name | Rudy Ray Moore |
| 2019 | Adam Sandler | Uncut Gems | Howard Ratner |
| 2019 | Taika Waititi | Jojo Rabbit | Adolf Hitler |
| 2020 | Sacha Baron Cohen | Borat Subsequent Moviefilm | Borat Sagdiyev |
| 2020 | Lin-Manuel Miranda | Hamilton | Alexander Hamilton |
| 2020 | Leslie Odom Jr. | Hamilton | Aaron Burr |
| 2020 | Dev Patel | The Personal History of David Copperfield | David Copperfield |
| 2020 | Andy Samberg | Palm Springs | Nyles |
| 2021 | Andrew Garfield | tick, tick... BOOM! | Jonathan Larson |
| 2021 | Peter Dinklage | Cyrano | Cyrano de Bergerac |
| 2021 | Anthony Ramos | In the Heights | Usnavi de la Vega |
| 2022 | Austin Butler | Elvis | Elvis Presley |
| 2022 | Diego Calva | Babylon | Manny Torres |
| 2022 | Daniel Craig | Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery | Detective Benoit Blanc |
| 2022 | Colin Farrell | The Banshees of Inisherin | Pádraic Súilleabháin |
| 2022 | Ralph Fiennes | The Menu | Julian Slowik |
| 2022 | Adam Sandler | Hustle | Stanley Sugerman |
| 2023 | Paul Giamatti | The Holdovers | Paul Hunham |
| 2023 | Nicolas Cage | Dream Scenario | Paul Matthews |
| 2023 | Barry Keoghan | Saltburn | Oliver Quick |
| 2023 | Joaquin Phoenix | Beau Is Afraid | Beau Wassermann |
| 2023 | Jeffrey Wright | American Fiction | Thelonious "Monk" Ellison |
| 2024 | Keith Kupferer | Ghostlight | Dan Mueller |
| 2024 | Jesse Eisenberg | A Real Pain | David Kaplan |
| 2024 | Ryan Gosling | The Fall Guy | Colt Seavers |
| 2024 | Michael Keaton | Beetlejuice Beetlejuice | Betelgeuse |
| 2024 | John Magaro | LaRoy, Texas | Ray |

### Best Actor – Motion Picture (2011–2017)

| Year | Actor | Film | Role |
| 2011 | Ryan Gosling | Drive | The Driver |
| 2011 | George Clooney | The Descendants | Matthew "Matt" King |
| 2011 | Leonardo DiCaprio | J. Edgar | J. Edgar Hoover |
| 2011 | Michael Fassbender | Shame | Brandon Sullivan |
| 2011 | Brendan Gleeson | The Guard | Sergeant Gerry Boyle |
| 2011 | Tom Hardy | Warrior | Tommy Riordan Conlon |
| 2011 | Woody Harrelson | Rampart | Officer David "Dave" Brown |
| 2011 | Gary Oldman | Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy | George Smiley |
| 2011 | Brad Pitt | Moneyball | Billy Beane |
| 2011 | Michael Shannon | Take Shelter | Curtis LaForche |
| 2012 | Bradley Cooper | Silver Linings Playbook | Patrizio "Pat" Solitano Jr. |
| 2012 | Daniel Day-Lewis | Lincoln | Abraham Lincoln |
| 2012 | John Hawkes | The Sessions | Mark O'Brien |
| 2012 | Hugh Jackman | Les Misérables | Jean Valjean |
| 2012 | Joaquin Phoenix | The Master | Freddie Quell |
| 2012 | Omar Sy | The Intouchables | Bakary "Driss" Bassri |
| 2012 | Denzel Washington | Flight | Captain William "Whip" Whitaker Sr. |
| 2013 | Matthew McConaughey | Dallas Buyers Club | Ron Woodroof |
| 2013 | Christian Bale | American Hustle | Irving Rosenfeld |
| 2013 | Bruce Dern | Nebraska | Woodrow "Woody" Grant |
| 2013 | Leonardo DiCaprio | The Wolf of Wall Street | Jordan Belfort |
| 2013 | Chiwetel Ejiofor | 12 Years a Slave | Solomon Northup |
| 2013 | Tom Hanks | Captain Phillips | Captain Richard Phillips |
| 2013 | Robert Redford | All Is Lost | Our Man |
| 2013 | Forest Whitaker | The Butler | Cecil Gaines |
| 2014 | Michael Keaton | Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance) | Riggan Thomson / Birdman |
| 2014 | Steve Carell | Foxcatcher | John Eleuthère du Pont |
| 2014 | Benedict Cumberbatch | The Imitation Game | Alan Turing |
| 2014 | Jake Gyllenhaal | Nightcrawler | Louis "Lou" Bloom |
| 2014 | David Oyelowo | Selma | Martin Luther King Jr. |
| 2014 | Eddie Redmayne | The Theory of Everything | Stephen Hawking |
| 2014 | Miles Teller | Whiplash | Andrew Neiman |
| 2015 | Leonardo DiCaprio | The Revenant | Hugh Glass |
| 2015 | Matt Damon | The Martian | Mark Watney |
| 2015 | Johnny Depp | Black Mass | James "Whitey" Bulger |
| 2015 | Michael Fassbender | Steve Jobs | Steve Jobs |
| 2015 | Tom Hardy | Legend | Ronald "Ronnie" and Reginald "Reggie" Kray |
| 2015 | Eddie Redmayne | The Danish Girl | Lili Elbe / Einar Wegener |
| 2015 | Will Smith | Concussion | Dr. Bennet Omalu |
| 2016 | Andrew Garfield | Hacksaw Ridge | Desmond T. Doss |
| 2016 | Viggo Mortensen | Captain Fantastic | Ben Cash |
| 2016 | Casey Affleck | Manchester by the Sea | Lee Chandler |
| 2016 | Joel Edgerton | Loving | Richard Loving |
| 2016 | Joseph Gordon-Levitt | Snowden | Edward Snowden |
| 2016 | Ryan Gosling | La La Land | Sebastian Wilder |
| 2016 | Tom Hanks | Sully | Captain Chesley "Sully" Sullenberger |
| 2016 | Denzel Washington | Fences | Troy Maxson |
| 2017 | Gary Oldman | Darkest Hour | Winston Churchill |
| 2017 | Harry Dean Stanton | Lucky | Lucky |
| 2017 | Daniel Day-Lewis | Phantom Thread | Reynolds Woodcock |
| 2017 | James Franco | The Disaster Artist | Tommy Wiseau |
| 2017 | Jake Gyllenhaal | Stronger | Jeff Bauman |
| 2017 | Robert Pattinson | Good Time | Constantine "Connie" Nikas |
| 2017 | Jeremy Renner | Wind River | Cory Lambert |

## Multiple nominations
### 9 nominations

* Leonardo DiCaprio

### 7 nominations

* Denzel Washington

### 6 nominations

* Ryan Gosling

### 5 nominations

* Johnny Depp
* Joaquin Phoenix

### 4 nominations

* Bradley Cooper
* Russell Crowe
* Daniel Day-Lewis
* Jake Gyllenhaal
* Viggo Mortensen
* Sean Penn

### 3 nominations

* Christian Bale
* Steve Carell
* George Clooney
* Matt Damon
* Colin Firth
* Paul Giamatti
* Brendan Gleeson
* Tom Hanks
* Tommy Lee Jones
* Eddie Murphy
* Bill Murray
* Jack Nicholson
* Edward Norton
* Gary Oldman
* Mark Ruffalo
* Billy Bob Thornton

### 2 nominations

* Javier Bardem
* Jeff Bridges
* Josh Brolin
* Nicolas Cage
* Michael Caine
* Jim Carrey
* Michael Cera
* Don Cheadle
* Sacha Baron Cohen
* Tom Cruise
* Benedict Cumberbatch
* Michael Douglas
* Robert Downey Jr.
* Robert Duvall
* Michael Fassbender
* James Franco
* Andrew Garfield
* Richard Gere
* Tom Hardy
* Philip Seymour Hoffman
* Kevin Kline
* Frank Langella
* William H. Macy
* Lin-Manuel Miranda
* Cillian Murphy
* Robert Redford
* Eddie Redmayne
* Jeremy Renner
* Sam Rockwell
* Geoffrey Rush
* Adam Sandler
* Will Smith
* Forest Whitaker
* Robin Williams

## Multiple wins
### 2 wins

* Andrew Garfield
* Ryan Gosling
* Philip Seymour Hoffman
* Viggo Mortensen
* Geoffrey Rush