Rentals
Oscars - Best Leading Role
Leading names matter. Names like Streep, Stanwyck, Mirren, Rampling and Moore, just part of this formidable roll call.
Their films vault across time and trend to show us people and nations at war, lovers fragmenting and humanity at its most hauntingly real.
WINNERS
There Will Be Blood There Will Be Blood
Drama 2007 158 mins Director: Paul Thomas Anderson
Daniel Day-Lewis' Oscar-winning performance as a ruthless oil baron bestrides Paul Thomas Anderson's towering 21st-century classic.
Ray Ray
Biopic 2004 152 mins Director: Taylor Hackford
Jamie Foxx won an Oscar for his extraordinary performance as Ray Charles, in a film that revived the potency of the musical biopic.
Manchester by the Sea Manchester by the Sea
Drama 2016 137 mins Director: Kenneth Lonergan
Casey Affleck and Michelle Williams shine in this devastating, Oscar-winning drama from Kenneth Lonergan about a man’s painful hometown return.
Still Alice Still Alice
Drama 2014 102 mins Director: Richard Glatzer and Wash Westmoreland
Julianne Moore won an Oscar for her extraordinary performance as a linguistics professor diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease.
The Iron Lady The Iron Lady
Drama 2012 105 mins Director: Phyllida Lloyd
Meryl Streep delivers an extraordinary performance as Margaret Thatcher in a provocative portrait.
Room Room
Thriller 2016 118 mins Director: Lenny Abrahamson
Brie Larson’s Oscar-winning performance is the beating heart of Lenny Abrahamson’s extraordinarily moving drama.
The King's Speech The King's Speech
Historical drama 2011 113 mins Director: Tom Hooper
Oscar-winning tale of the relationship between King George VI (Colin Firth) and the Australian speech therapist who treated his stammer.
La La Landd La La Landd
Comedy 2016 128 mins Director: Damien Chazelle
Ryan Gosling and Emma Stone channel old-school Hollywood glamour in this bright and playful romantic musical from director Damien Chazelle (Whiplash).
The Imitation Game The Imitation Game
Biopic 2014 115 mins Director: Morten Tyldum
Benedict Cumberbatch’s roundly acclaimed performance anchors the incredible, Oscar-winning story of code-breaker Alan Turing.
The Queen The Queen
Drama 2006 103 mins Director: Stephen Frears
Helen Mirren won an Oscar for her performance as the enduring monarch who comes under scrutiny following the death of Princess Diana.
Room at the Top Room at the Top
Drama 1958 117 mins Director: Jack Clayton
Jack Clayton directs this romantic, love-triangle drama featuring Simone Signoret in an Oscar-winning performance.
NOMINEES
The Wife The Wife
Drama 2018 100 mins Director: Aneil Karia, James Gray, Anna Biller and 1 more
Glenn Close and Jonathan Pryce are the spouses with a secret in a tight, taut drama of ego and legacy.
The Post The Post
Drama 2017 116 mins Director: Steven Spielberg
Steven Spielberg’s acclaimed, gripping and timely drama about the publishing of the Pentagon Papers, featuring Tom Hanks and an Oscar-nominated performance from Meryl Streep.
Hacksaw Ridge Hacksaw Ridge
War 2017 139 mins Director: Mel Gibson
Andrew Garfield stars in Mel Gibson’s visceral war film, telling the extraordinary story of the soldier who saved 75 lives in one of WWII’s bloodiest battles.
Jackie Jackie
Biopic 2017 100 mins Director: Pablo Larraín
Natalie Portman is exceptional as the iconic First Lady who has to quickly adjust to the world-shaking trauma of her husband’s assassination.
Captain Fantastic Captain Fantastic
Drama 2016 119 mins Director: Matt Ross
Viggo Mortensen plays the father-gone-primitive in this wonderful award-winning comedy about an off-grid family.
45 Years 45 Years
Drama 2015 95 mins Director: Andrew Haigh
One of the most acclaimed British features of recent years, starring Charlotte Rampling and Tom Courtenay as a couple rocked by news from the past.
Elle Elle
Drama 2015 131 mins Director: Paul Verhoeven
Isabelle Huppert gives an unforgettable performance in Paul Verhoeven’s provocative thriller about one woman’s response to a violent attack.
Pride & Prejudice Pride & Prejudice
Drama 2005 127 mins Director: Joe Wright
Keira Knightley stars in Jane Austen’s timeless romance, reinvigorated for the modern age by the masters of British rom-com, Working Title.
Volver Volver
Drama 2005 121 mins Director: Pedro Almodóvar
Family secrets echo around a Spanish clan, ringing loud enough to rouse the dead, in Pedro Almodóvar's assured melodrama.
Two Days, One Night Two Days, One Night
Drama 2014 95 mins Director: Jean-Pierre Dardenne and Luc Dardenne
Academy Award-winner Marion Cotillard’s collaboration with Cannes Festival-favourites Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne is a stunning, tense drama about a woman’s race against time to save her job.
Beasts of the Southern Wild Beasts of the Southern Wild
Drama 2012 93 mins Director: Benh Zeitlin
Set in a Deep South delta, Zeitlin’s feature debut takes a child’s eye view of poverty, adult apathy and ecological crisis. Hallucinatory fare
Vera Drake Vera Drake
Drama 2005 120 mins Director: Mike Leigh
Mike Leigh’s acclaimed story of a selfless woman who performs unlawful abortions in 1950s Britain; both an affecting drama and vital social history.
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
Drama 2004 103 mins Director: Michel Gondry
Jim Carrey and Kate Winslet play the couple who fall in love so quickly it seems they must have known each other in a past life ... only to discover they did.
12 Years a Slave 12 Years a Slave
Biopic 2014 134 mins Director: Steve McQueen
Chiwetel Ejiofor and Michael Fassbender star in Steve McQueen’s fearless, Oscar-winning story of a free man who’s sold into slavery.
Foxcatcher Foxcatcher
Drama 2014 135 mins Director: Bennett Miller
Steve Carell and Channing Tatum deliver stunning performance in the story of the strange relationship between two Olympic wrestlers and their millionaire benefactor.
Brooklyn Brooklyn
Romance 2015 112 mins Director: John Crowley
Saoirse Ronan shines as a woman who journeys from post-war small-town Ireland to New York, in Nick Hornby’s adaptation of Colm Tóibín’s best-selling novel.
Trumbo Trumbo
Biopic 2015 124 mins Director: Jay Roach
Bryan Cranston (Breaking Bad, Argo) gives a cracking performance as Dalton Trumbo, the Oscar-winning screenwriter who became a Hollywood outcast.
The Hurt Locker The Hurt Locker
War 2008 131 mins Director: Kathryn Bigelow
Kathryn Bigelow won the Best Director Academy Award in 2010 for this visceral, thrilling story of an American maverick bomb disarmer in Iraq.
Cape Fear Cape Fear
Horror 1991 128 mins
Scorsese’s remake of J Lee Thompson’s 1962 thriller stars Robert De Niro as a psychotic rapist out to avenge the lawyer he blames for his conviction (Nick Nolte).
Carol Carol
Drama 2015 119 mins Director: Todd Haynes
Cate Blanchett and Rooney Mara illuminate Todd Haynes’ intoxicating adaptation of Patricia Highsmith’s beloved novel.
Pulp Fiction Pulp Fiction
Crime 1994 154 mins Director: Quentin Tarantino
Quentin Tarantino’s crackling crime classic still retains its swagger as one of the great American films of recent decades.
Mona Lisa Mona Lisa
Gangster 1986 100 mins Director: Neil Jordan
An ungainly cockney chauffeur navigates the seedy streets of London, gradually falling for the elegant and mysterious prostitute who is his passenger.
Venus Venus
Comedy 2007 95 mins Director: Roger Michell
Peter O’Toole in one of his last, finest performances in this story about an aging actor who thought he’d seen it all – until he met her.
Double Indemnity Double Indemnity
Crime 1944 108 mins Director: Billy Wilder
Barbara Stanwyck is the housewife who dupes an insurance salesman into a devious murder plot, in this giant of American cinema - the archetypal Film Noir.
Amour Amour
Drama 2012 127 mins Director: Michael Haneke
Michael Haneke’s Palme d’Or-winner, about an octogenarian couple trying to cope when a stroke leaves the wife partly paralysed and speechless.
Tom Jones Tom Jones
Comedy 1963 121 mins Director: Tony Richardson
Tony Richardson's raucous and innovative adaptation of Henry Fielding’s classic novel was the winner of four Academy Awards.