Online Film Critics Society Award for Best Actor

The 2023 recipient: Paul Giamatti

The Online Film Critics Society Award for Best Actor is an annual film award given by the Online Film Critics Society to honor the best lead actor of the year.

Winners

1990s

Year	Winner	Film	Role
1997	Jack Nicholson	As Good as It Gets	Melvin Udall
	Peter Fonda	Ulee's Gold	Ulysses "Ulee" Jackson
	Ian Holm	The Sweet Hereafter	Mitchell Stephens
1998	Ian McKellen	Gods and Monsters	James Whale
	Tom Hanks	Saving Private Ryan	Captain John H. Miller
	Edward Norton	American History X	Derek Vinyard
1999	Kevin Spacey	American Beauty	Lester Burnham
	Jim Carrey	Man on the Moon	Andy Kaufman
	Russell Crowe	The Insider	Jeffrey Wigand
	Richard Farnsworth	The Straight Story	Alvin Straight
	Edward Norton	Fight Club	The Narrator

2000s

Year	Winner	Film	Role
2000	Tom Hanks	Cast Away	Chuck Noland
	Christian Bale	American Psycho	Patrick Bateman
	Russell Crowe	Gladiator	Maximus Decimus Meridius
	Michael Douglas	Wonder Boys	Prof. Grady Tripp
	Geoffrey Rush	Quills	Marquis de Sade
2001	Billy Bob Thornton	The Man Who Wasn't There	Ed Crane
	Russell Crowe	A Beautiful Mind	John Nash
	Guy Pearce	Memento	Leonard Shelby
	Denzel Washington	Training Day	Alonzo Harris
	Tom Wilkinson	In the Bedroom	Matt Fowler
2002	Daniel Day-Lewis	Gangs of New York	William "Bill the Butcher" Cutting
	Adrien Brody	The Pianist	Władysław Szpilman
	Nicolas Cage	Adaptation	Charlie Kaufman / Donald Kaufman
	Jack Nicholson	About Schmidt	Warren R. Schmidt
	Robin Williams	One Hour Photo	Seymour "Sy" Parrish
2003	Bill Murray	Lost in Translation	Bob Harris
	Johnny Depp	Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl	Captain Jack Sparrow
	Paul Giamatti	American Splendor	Harvey Pekar
	Ben Kingsley	House of Sand and Fog	Massoud Behrani
	Sean Penn	Mystic River	Jimmy Markum
2004	Paul Giamatti	Sideways	Miles Raymond
	Jim Carrey	Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind	Joel Barish
	Don Cheadle	Hotel Rwanda	Paul Rusesabagina
	Leonardo DiCaprio	The Aviator	Howard Hughes
	Jamie Foxx	Ray	Ray Charles
2005	Philip Seymour Hoffman	Capote	Truman Capote
	Terrence Howard	Hustle & Flow	DJay
	Heath Ledger	Brokeback Mountain	Ennis del Mar
	Joaquin Phoenix	Walk the Line	Johnny Cash
	David Strathairn	Good Night, and Good Luck	Edward R. Murrow
2006	Forest Whitaker	The Last King of Scotland	Idi Amin
	Sacha Baron Cohen	Borat	Borat Sagdiyev
	Leonardo DiCaprio	The Departed	Billy Costigan
	Ryan Gosling	Half Nelson	Dan Dunne
	Peter O'Toole	Venus	Maurice
2007	Daniel Day-Lewis	There Will Be Blood	Daniel Plainview
	George Clooney	Michael Clayton	Michael Clayton
	Emile Hirsch	Into the Wild	Christopher McCandless
	Frank Langella	Starting Out in the Evening	Leonard Schiller
	Viggo Mortensen	Eastern Promises	Nikolai Luzhin
2008	Mickey Rourke	The Wrestler	Randy Robinson
	Benicio del Toro	Che	Che Guevara
	Richard Jenkins	The Visitor	Walter Vale
	Frank Langella	Frost/Nixon	Richard Nixon
	Sean Penn	Milk	Harvey Milk
2009	Jeremy Renner	The Hurt Locker	SFC. William James
	Jeff Bridges	Crazy Heart	Otis "Bad" Blake
	George Clooney	Up in the Air	Ryan Bingham
	Sharlto Copley	District 9	Wikus van de Merwe
	Joaquin Phoenix	Two Lovers	Leonard Kraditor

2010s

Year	Winner	Film	Role
2010	Colin Firth	The King's Speech	King George VI
	Jeff Bridges	True Grit	Rooster Cogburn
	Jesse Eisenberg	The Social Network	Mark Zuckerberg
	James Franco	127 Hours	Aron Ralston
	Ryan Gosling	Blue Valentine	Dean Pereira
	Édgar Ramírez	Carlos	Carlos the Jackal
2011	Michael Fassbender	Shame	Brandon Sullivan
	George Clooney	The Descendants	Matt King
	Jean Dujardin	The Artist	George Valentin
	Gary Oldman	Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy	George Smiley
	Michael Shannon	Take Shelter	Curtis LaForche
2012	Daniel Day-Lewis	Lincoln	Abraham Lincoln
	John Hawkes	The Sessions	Mark O'Brien
	Denis Lavant	Holy Motors	Mr. Oscar / Various Characters
	Joaquin Phoenix	The Master	Freddie Quell
	Denzel Washington	Flight	William "Whip" Whitaker, Sr.
2013	Chiwetel Ejiofor	12 Years a Slave	Solomon Northup
	Tom Hanks	Captain Phillips	Captain Richard Phillips
	Oscar Isaac	Inside Llewyn Davis	Llewyn Davis
	Mads Mikkelsen	The Hunt	Lucas
	Joaquin Phoenix	Her	Theodore Twombly
2014	Michael Keaton	Birdman	Riggan Thomson
	Ralph Fiennes	The Grand Budapest Hotel	Monsieur Gustave H.
	Brendan Gleeson	Calvary	Father James Lavelle
	Jake Gyllenhaal	Nightcrawler	Louis "Lou" Bloom
	Timothy Spall	Mr. Turner	J. M. W. Turner
2015	Michael Fassbender	Steve Jobs	Steve Jobs
	Matt Damon	The Martian	Mark Watney
	Leonardo DiCaprio	The Revenant	Hugh Glass
	Michael B. Jordan	Creed	Adonis Creed
	Ian McKellen	Mr. Holmes	Sherlock Holmes
2016	Casey Affleck	Manchester by the Sea	Lee Chandler
	Adam Driver	Paterson	Paterson
	Ryan Gosling	La La Land	Sebastian Wilder
	Viggo Mortensen	Captain Fantastic	Ben Cash
	Denzel Washington	Fences	Troy Maxson
2017	Gary Oldman	Darkest Hour	Winston Churchill
	Timothée Chalamet	Call Me by Your Name	Elio Perlman
	James Franco	The Disaster Artist	Tommy Wiseau
	Daniel Kaluuya	Get Out	Chris Washington
	Robert Pattinson	Good Time	Constantine "Connie" Nikas
2018	Ethan Hawke	First Reformed	Ernst Toller
	Christian Bale	Vice	Dick Cheney
	Bradley Cooper	A Star Is Born	Jackson Maine
	Joaquin Phoenix	You Were Never Really Here	Joe
	John David Washington	BlacKkKlansman	Ron Stallworth
2019	Adam Driver	Marriage Story	Charlie Barber
	Antonio Banderas	Pain and Glory	Salvador Mallo
	Robert De Niro	The Irishman	Frank Sheeran
	Joaquin Phoenix	Joker	Arthur Fleck / Joker
	Adam Sandler	Uncut Gems	Howard Ratner

2020s

Year	Winner	Film	Role
2020	Delroy Lindo	Da 5 Bloods	Paul
	Riz Ahmed	Sound of Metal	Ruben Stone
	Chadwick Boseman	Ma Rainey's Black Bottom	Levee Green
	Anthony Hopkins	The Father	Anthony
	Steven Yeun	Minari	Jacob Yi
2021	Benedict Cumberbatch	The Power of the Dog	Phil Burbank
	Nicolas Cage	Pig	Robbie "Rob" Feld
	Andrew Garfield	tick, tick... Boom!	Jonathan Larsen
	Oscar Isaac	The Card Counter	William Tell
	Hidetoshi Nishijima	Drive My Car	Yūsuke Kafuku
2022	Colin Farrell	The Banshees of Inisherin	Pádraic Súilleabháin
	Austin Butler	Elvis	Elvis Presley
	Brendan Fraser	The Whale	Charlie
	Paul Mescal	Aftersun	Calum Paterson
	Bill Nighy	Living	Mr. Williams
2023	Paul Giamatti	The Holdovers	Paul Hunham
	Leonardo DiCaprio	Killers of the Flower Moon	Ernest Burkhart
	Cillian Murphy	Oppenheimer	J. Robert Oppenheimer
	Andrew Scott	All of Us Strangers	Adam
	Jeffrey Wright	American Fiction	Thelonious "Monk" Ellison

References

• OFCS - Awards