# Critics' Choice Movie Award for Best Actor

The Critics' Choice Movie Award for Best Actor is an award given out at the annual Critics' Choice Movie Awards. The awards are presented by the Critics Choice Association (CCA) and was first presented in 1995. There were no official nominees announced until 2001. Actors Russell Crowe and Daniel Day-Lewis hold the record for most wins in this category with three victories each, followed by Jack Nicholson and Sean Penn with two wins each.
This is the main Critics' Choice Movie Award category for leading performances by a male actor. Previously, two other genre-specific categories were presented: Best Actor in a Comedy (2012–2019) and Best Actor in an Action Movie (2012–2016). Currently, another subsidiary, the Critics' Choice Super Awards, presents awards to actors for genre-specific roles (horror, science fiction/fantasy, action, and superhero). For Critics' Choice Awards for lead performances by male actors in television, see Critics' Choice Television Award for Best Actor in a Comedy, Drama or Limited Series or Movie Made for Television.

## Winners and nominees
### 1990s

| Year | Actor | Character | Film |
| 1995 | Kevin Bacon | Henri Young | Murder in the First |
| 1996 | Geoffrey Rush | David Helfgott | Shine |
| 1997 | Jack Nicholson | Melvin Udall | As Good as It Gets |
| 1998 | Ian McKellen | James Whale | Gods and Monsters |
| 1999 | Russell Crowe | Jeffrey Wigand | The Insider |

### 2000s

| Year | Actor | Character | Film |
| 2000 | Russell Crowe | Maximus Decimus Meridius | Gladiator |
| 2001 | Russell Crowe | John Nash | A Beautiful Mind |
| 2001 | Sean Penn | Sam Dawson | I Am Sam |
| 2001 | Will Smith | Muhammad Ali | Ali |
| 2002 | Daniel Day-Lewis (TIE) | William "Bill the Butcher" Cutting | Gangs of New York |
| 2002 | Jack Nicholson (TIE) | Warren Schmidt | About Schmidt |
| 2002 | Robin Williams | Seymour "Sy" Parrish | One Hour Photo |
| 2003 | Sean Penn | Jimmy Markum | Mystic River |
| 2003 | Russell Crowe | Captain Jack Aubrey | Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World |
| 2003 | Johnny Depp | Captain Jack Sparrow | Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl |
| 2003 | Ben Kingsley | Colonel Massoud Amir Behrani | House of Sand and Fog |
| 2003 | Bill Murray | Bob Harris | Lost in Translation |
| 2004 | Jamie Foxx | Ray Charles | Ray |
| 2004 | Javier Bardem | Ramón Sampedro | The Sea Inside |
| 2004 | Don Cheadle | Paul Rusesabagina | Hotel Rwanda |
| 2004 | Johnny Depp | J. M. Barrie | Finding Neverland |
| 2004 | Leonardo DiCaprio | Howard Hughes | The Aviator |
| 2004 | Paul Giamatti | Miles Raymond | Sideways |
| 2005 | Philip Seymour Hoffman | Truman Capote | Capote |
| 2005 | Russell Crowe | James J. Braddock | Cinderella Man |
| 2005 | Terrence Howard | DJay | Hustle & Flow |
| 2005 | Heath Ledger | Ennis Del Mar | Brokeback Mountain |
| 2005 | Joaquin Phoenix | Johnny Cash | Walk the Line |
| 2005 | David Strathairn | Edward R. Murrow | Good Night, and Good Luck |
| 2006 | Forest Whitaker | Idi Amin | The Last King of Scotland |
| 2006 | Leonardo DiCaprio | Danny Archer | Blood Diamond |
| 2006 | Leonardo DiCaprio | William "Billy" Costigan, Jr. | The Departed |
| 2006 | Ryan Gosling | Dan Dunne | Half Nelson |
| 2006 | Peter O'Toole | Maurice Russell | Venus |
| 2006 | Will Smith | Chris Gardner | The Pursuit of Happyness |
| 2007 | Daniel Day-Lewis | Daniel Plainview | There Will Be Blood |
| 2007 | George Clooney | Michael Clayton | Michael Clayton |
| 2007 | Johnny Depp | Benjamin Barker / Sweeney Todd | Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street |
| 2007 | Ryan Gosling | Lars Lindstrom | Lars and the Real Girl |
| 2007 | Emile Hirsch | Chris McCandless | Into the Wild |
| 2007 | Viggo Mortensen | Nikolai Luzhin | Eastern Promises |
| 2008 | Sean Penn | Harvey Milk | Milk |
| 2008 | Clint Eastwood | Walt Kowalski | Gran Torino |
| 2008 | Richard Jenkins | Walter Vale | The Visitor |
| 2008 | Frank Langella | Richard Nixon | Frost/Nixon |
| 2008 | Brad Pitt | Benjamin Button | The Curious Case of Benjamin Button |
| 2008 | Mickey Rourke | Randy "The Ram" Robinson | The Wrestler |
| 2009 | Jeff Bridges | Otis "Bad" Blake | Crazy Heart |
| 2009 | George Clooney | Ryan Bingham | Up in the Air |
| 2009 | Colin Firth | George Falconer | A Single Man |
| 2009 | Morgan Freeman | Nelson Mandela | Invictus |
| 2009 | Viggo Mortensen | Man | The Road |
| 2009 | Jeremy Renner | Sergeant First Class William James | The Hurt Locker |

### 2010s

| Year | Actor | Character | Film |
| 2010 | Colin Firth | King George VI | The King's Speech |
| 2010 | Jeff Bridges | Rooster Cogburn | True Grit |
| 2010 | Robert Duvall | Felix Bush | Get Low |
| 2010 | Jesse Eisenberg | Mark Zuckerberg | The Social Network |
| 2010 | James Franco | Aron Ralston | 127 Hours |
| 2010 | Ryan Gosling | Dean Pereira | Blue Valentine |
| 2011 | George Clooney | Matt King | The Descendants |
| 2011 | Leonardo DiCaprio | J. Edgar Hoover | J. Edgar |
| 2011 | Jean Dujardin | George Valentin | The Artist |
| 2011 | Michael Fassbender | Brandon Sullivan | Shame |
| 2011 | Ryan Gosling | Driver | Drive |
| 2011 | Brad Pitt | Billy Beane | Moneyball |
| 2012 | Daniel Day-Lewis | Abraham Lincoln | Lincoln |
| 2012 | Bradley Cooper | Patrizio "Pat" Solitano, Jr. | Silver Linings Playbook |
| 2012 | John Hawkes | Mark O'Brien | The Sessions |
| 2012 | Hugh Jackman | Jean Valjean | Les Misérables |
| 2012 | Joaquin Phoenix | Freddie Quell | The Master |
| 2012 | Denzel Washington | William "Whip" Whitaker, Sr. | Flight |
| 2013 | Matthew McConaughey | Ron Woodroof | Dallas Buyers Club |
| 2013 | Christian Bale | Irving Rosenfeld | American Hustle |
| 2013 | Bruce Dern | Woody Grant | Nebraska |
| 2013 | Chiwetel Ejiofor | Solomon Northup | 12 Years a Slave |
| 2013 | Tom Hanks | Captain Richard Phillips | Captain Phillips |
| 2013 | Robert Redford | Our Man | All Is Lost |
| 2014 | Michael Keaton | Riggan Thomson | Birdman |
| 2014 | Benedict Cumberbatch | Alan Turing | The Imitation Game |
| 2014 | Ralph Fiennes | Monsieur Gustave H. | The Grand Budapest Hotel |
| 2014 | Jake Gyllenhaal | Louis "Lou" Bloom | Nightcrawler |
| 2014 | David Oyelowo | Martin Luther King Jr. | Selma |
| 2014 | Eddie Redmayne | Stephen Hawking | The Theory of Everything |
| 2015 | Leonardo DiCaprio | Hugh Glass | The Revenant |
| 2015 | Bryan Cranston | Dalton Trumbo | Trumbo |
| 2015 | Matt Damon | Mark Watney | The Martian |
| 2015 | Johnny Depp | Whitey Bulger | Black Mass |
| 2015 | Michael Fassbender | Steve Jobs | Steve Jobs |
| 2015 | Eddie Redmayne | Lili Elbe / Einar Wegener | The Danish Girl |
| 2016 | Casey Affleck | Lee Chandler | Manchester by the Sea |
| 2016 | Joel Edgerton | Richard Loving | Loving |
| 2016 | Andrew Garfield | Desmond T. Doss | Hacksaw Ridge |
| 2016 | Ryan Gosling | Sebastian Wilder | La La Land |
| 2016 | Tom Hanks | Captain Chesley "Sully" Sullenberger | Sully |
| 2016 | Denzel Washington | Troy Maxson | Fences |
| 2017 | Gary Oldman | Winston Churchill | Darkest Hour |
| 2017 | Timothée Chalamet | Elio Perlman | Call Me by Your Name |
| 2017 | Daniel Day-Lewis | Reynolds Woodcock | Phantom Thread |
| 2017 | James Franco | Tommy Wiseau | The Disaster Artist |
| 2017 | Jake Gyllenhaal | Jeff Bauman | Stronger |
| 2017 | Tom Hanks | Ben Bradlee | The Post |
| 2017 | Daniel Kaluuya | Chris Washington | Get Out |
| 2018 | Christian Bale | Dick Cheney | Vice |
| 2018 | Bradley Cooper | Jackson Maine | A Star Is Born |
| 2018 | Willem Dafoe | Vincent van Gogh | At Eternity's Gate |
| 2018 | Ryan Gosling | Neil Armstrong | First Man |
| 2018 | Ethan Hawke | Reverend Ernst Toller | First Reformed |
| 2018 | Rami Malek | Freddie Mercury | Bohemian Rhapsody |
| 2018 | Viggo Mortensen | Frank "Tony Lip" Vallelonga | Green Book |
| 2019 | Joaquin Phoenix | Arthur Fleck / Joker | Joker |
| 2019 | Antonio Banderas | Salvador Mallo | Pain and Glory |
| 2019 | Robert De Niro | Frank Sheeran | The Irishman |
| 2019 | Leonardo DiCaprio | Rick Dalton | Once Upon a Time in Hollywood |
| 2019 | Adam Driver | Charlie Barber | Marriage Story |
| 2019 | Eddie Murphy | Rudy Ray Moore | Dolemite Is My Name |
| 2019 | Adam Sandler | Howard Ratner | Uncut Gems |

### 2020s

| Year | Actor | Character | Film |
| 2020 | Chadwick Boseman (posthumous) | Levee Green | Ma Rainey's Black Bottom |
| 2020 | Ben Affleck | Jack Cunningham | The Way Back |
| 2020 | Riz Ahmed | Ruben Stone | Sound of Metal |
| 2020 | Tom Hanks | Captain Jefferson Kyle Kidd | News of the World |
| 2020 | Anthony Hopkins | Anthony | The Father |
| 2020 | Delroy Lindo | Paul | Da 5 Bloods |
| 2020 | Gary Oldman | Herman J. Mankiewicz | Mank |
| 2020 | Steven Yeun | Jacob Yi | Minari |
| 2021 | Will Smith | Richard Williams | King Richard |
| 2021 | Nicolas Cage | Robin Feld | Pig |
| 2021 | Benedict Cumberbatch | Phil Burbank | The Power of the Dog |
| 2021 | Peter Dinklage | Cyrano de Bergerac | Cyrano |
| 2021 | Andrew Garfield | Jonathan Larson | tick, tick... BOOM! |
| 2021 | Denzel Washington | Lord Macbeth | The Tragedy of Macbeth |
| 2022 | Brendan Fraser | Charlie | The Whale |
| 2022 | Austin Butler | Elvis Presley | Elvis |
| 2022 | Tom Cruise | Pete "Maverick" Mitchell | Top Gun: Maverick |
| 2022 | Colin Farrell | Pádraic Súilleabháin | The Banshees of Inisherin |
| 2022 | Paul Mescal | Calum Patterson | Aftersun |
| 2022 | Bill Nighy | Mr. Williams | Living |
| 2023 | Paul Giamatti | Paul Hunham | The Holdovers |
| 2023 | Bradley Cooper | Leonard Bernstein | Maestro |
| 2023 | Leonardo DiCaprio | Ernest Burkhart | Killers of the Flower Moon |
| 2023 | Colman Domingo | Bayard Rustin | Rustin |
| 2023 | Cillian Murphy | J. Robert Oppenheimer | Oppenheimer |
| 2023 | Jeffrey Wright | Thelonious "Monk" Ellison | American Fiction |
| 2024 | Adrien Brody | László Tóth | The Brutalist |
| 2024 | Timothée Chalamet | Bob Dylan | A Complete Unknown |
| 2024 | Daniel Craig | William Lee | Queer |
| 2024 | Colman Domingo | John "Divine G" Whitfield | Sing Sing |
| 2024 | Ralph Fiennes | Thomas Cardinal Lawrence | Conclave |
| 2024 | Hugh Grant | Mr. Reed | Heretic |

## Multiple winners
### 3 wins

* Daniel Day-Lewis
* Russell Crowe (consecutive)

### 2 wins

* Jack Nicholson
* Sean Penn