Best Performances of the Year

So this time of year there's always buzz around different performances by actors and actresses and who might be nominated for a certain award. I'm going to pick rather randomly the performances I was most impressed by. I'm restricting it to movies I've seen this year (yes, I know Anne Hathaway is kind of a shoe-in for Supporting Actress, but I have yet to see Les Miserables, so that's why she's not on here for instance.)

Also I'm well aware there are a variety of actors and actresses who have buzz around them for various reasons, but I don't necessarily care about them or their performances (again this is all personal to me and what I think). That's why there's no Jessica Chastain for Zero Dark Thirty or John Hawkes for The Sessions. Neither of those movies are ones I'm that interested in seeing and simply don't seem to be super Oscar-caliber to me. If someone wins something, I'm willing to check the movie out despite my reservations for the performance or the movie (Hello, Iron Lady).

I'm not going to break this down into the usual categories of Best Supporting this or that or Best Actor/Actress, because again I'm being lazy and this list is kind of random anyway.

Finally, I'm not gonna predict nominations for the Oscars, because that game is too difficult to play right now at this stage. I'd rather play at guessing when the names are in for official selection.

Sally Field (Lincoln)

Amy Adams (The Master)

Leonardo DiCaprio (Django Unchained)

Christoph Waltz (Django Unchained)

Philip Seymour Hoffman (The Master)

Javier Bardem (Skyfall)

Joaquin Phoenix (The Master)

Daniel Day-Lewis (Lincoln)