1. Chris Evans - "Snowpiercer"

While Evans seems to be having the life of Captain America, being part of a powerful team, being absolutely jacked and being able to shut up any millennial who claims they feel "nostalgic," "Snowpiercer" is the opposite. After a machine that stops global warming backfires, spurring another ice age, all that human civilization has left is an extra-long train that travels the world, created by the praised Wilford (Ed Harris). Evans' character, Curtis, isn't able to afford a good seat on the train, so he is at the end of the train, and the only available food is bug-filled "protein bars" and other people's arms. Sick of the system, Curtis and friends make a journey for the front of the train to confront Wilbur themselves. With fantastic action sequences and deep themes, "Snowpiercer" was a critical success, worthy to be seen by any Evans fan.

2. Scarlett Johansson - "Lost in Translation"

Johansson's breakout film, written and directed exquisetly by Sofia Coppola, portrays Charlotte, a Philosophy major graduate who goes to Tokyo with her ambitious, self-centered photographer boyfriend, John (Giovanni Ribisi). Charlotte is as confused as to what to do with her life as she is walking the foreign, Tokyo streets. It is in Tokyo that she meets Bob Harris (Bill Murray), an actor who has a liquor commercial and a mid-life crisis. They meet and, throughout the film, find themselves through each other. "Lost in Translation" is considered Coppola's breakout film and one of the best of the century.

3. Jeremy Renner - "The Hurt Locker"

Renner is known for his accuracy as Hawkeye, but in the "Hurt Locker" he shows a different kind of accuracy as a soldier assigned to a bomb squad unit. His maverick style, one not so different from Hawkeye, is not well liked by his squad-mates, and drama and action ensue .This film won Oscar's for both Best Director for Kathryn Bigelow and Best Picture.

4. John Slattery - "Spotlight"

Slattery might be part of the highest grossing film of 2016, but he already has something to be proud about with the Best Picture of 2015, "Spotlight." In 2001, the Boston Globe Spotlight team investigated a few accounts of child molestation coverups, and what they find goes all the way up to the Vatican. Excellent acting and an understated screenplay gives the "Spotlight" source material justice with one of the best films of the decade.

5. Anthony Mackie - "The Night Before"

Mackie plays Chris in "The Night Before," an NFL wide receiver (what if he played for the Falcons?). However, the real story is the night he has with his best friends, Isaac (Seth Rogen) and Ethan (Joseph Gordon-Levitt). Growing old and growing apart, these friends spend what may be their last Christmas eve tradition together of walking around Manhattan and causing chaos. This film showed a good return to form for a Seth Rogen movie, making the most out of the characters' flaws makes "The Night Before" a worthy addition to the Christmas movie pantheon.

6. Don Cheadle - "Boogie Nights"

Cheadle plays country music-loving Buck Swope in Paul Thomas Anderson's breakout film. Swope stars in adult film along with several stars, including breakout film star Eddie Adams (Mark Wahlberg) under the name Dirk Diggler, all under the steady and famous direction of Jack Horner (Burt Reynolds). "Boogie Nights" is an entertaining and thought-provoking examination on '70s culture, the mainstream's approach toward pornography and ego caused by fame.

7. Elizabeth Olsen - "Liberal Arts"

In this small indie directed and acted in by "How I Met Your Mother" lead Josh Radnor, Olsen plays Zibbie, a sophomore at a liberal arts college in Ohio who is unsatisfied with the immaturity of men at her school. She meets Jesse (Radnor), a 30-something administration officer in a New York City college, when he meets his old professor. They meet, and a friendship blooms, but things get complicated when they start to have feelings for each other. "Liberal Arts" is a close character study and includes several fascinating conversations - something you may not see in between the overblown action sequences and throwaway one-liners of "Civil War." Not that there's anything bad about that, though....

8. Paul Rudd - "They Came Together"

Comedy vet Paul Rudd stars in this signature David Wain film alongside Amy Poehler. Rudd plays Joel, a "vaguely but not overtly Jewish" employee at Candy Systems and Research, a big corporation in New York City. Molly (Poehler) is a quirky fiction lover and owner of the quirky store "Lower Sweet Side" just two blocks away, the store that CSR is trying to take down in favor of a CSR mega-store. Molly and Joel meet and immediately hate each other, but slowly gain feelings for each other. Sounds familiar, right? That's the whole point. "They Came Together" is an absurdist satire of conventional romantic comedies, with, as the kids say, some of the most "WTF" moments of film. However, the close examination of similarities of romantic comedies paired with the ability to have more hits than misses makes "They Came Together" a romantic comedy that you'll actually want to see (not that "(500) Days of Summer" isn't a romantic comedy you won't want to see.)

9. Daniel Bruhl - "Rush"

Bruhl plays Nicky Lauda, a '70s Formula One racer in this Ron Howard movie that is based on a true story. Lauda, a cautious, determined racer, starts a rivalry against playboy James Hunt (Chris Hemsworth), and a fierce rivalry starts. "Rush" speeds ahead due to its sleek directing and powerful performances.

10. Robert Downey Jr. - "Zodiac"

I couldn't forget Tony Stark, could I? "Zodiac" tells the tale of Robert Graysmith (Jake Gyllenhaal), a detective trying to uncover the serial killer, Ted Cruz - I mean the Zodiac Killer. There to help him is Paul Avery (Downey Jr.) and David Toschi (Mark Ruffallo). "Zodiac," what many consider to be David Fincher's masterpiece, examines the realm of obsession - not just in the killing world, but also in the investigating.