One of the defining characteristics of the Great Films is the quality of the ensemble of actors who bring the story to life. Back in Hollywood’s Golden Era, when everyone in town was under contract to one of the majors, the feat was taken for granted. From “Best Years of Our Lives” to “Casablanca” to “The Apartment,” best picture Oscars regularly went to films with stunning casts, where the quality of performances started with the leads and extended to the smallest supporting parts.
Which makes it doubly surprising that all these decades later, there’s still no best ensemble cast award at the Oscars. But thankfully, Screen Actors Guild does bestow this honor and it’s long been one of the most sought-after awards in the season. It’s also seen as a major bellwether kudo that often predicts the Oscar best picture winner.
Here are 10 of this season’s most fascinating examples of excellence in ensemble acting.
Anora
Director: Sean Baker; casting associate: Emily Fleischer
Fifty-nine years ago, a little American film with a first-name only title, “Marty,” won the first-ever Palme d’Or in Cannes. This year’s Palme d’Or winner, “Anora,” moves the action from the Bronx to Brooklyn, but like the Delbert Mann classic, Sean Baker’s film is packed with great performances from its dynamic ensemble, which seems to be in half of the film’s scenes at the same time.
Mikey Madison is winning kudos for her turn as the titular exotic dancer, as is Yura Borisov for the smitten Russian bodyguard. Dig deeper and you have Mark Eydelshteyn’s antic turn as the spoiled oligarch scion, Anton Bitter as a spunky candy store employee, Vache Tovmasyan as a beleaguered Armenian tough guy and Karren Karagulian as the increasingly exasperated soul tasked with keeping hell from breaking loose.
Beetlejuice Beetlejuice
Director: Tim Burton; casting director: Sophie Holland
The obvious special casting challenge for Tim Burton’s “Beetlejuice Beetlejuice” was bringing back the stars who made the original both a hit film and a cultural touchstone of its time. This time around, Michael Keaton, Winona Ryder and Catherine O’Hara reprise their roles with undiminished comic zest and supernatural gusto. They’re joined in the comic mayhem by the spirited Jenna Ortega, a ghoulishly game Monica Bellucci, afterlife crime buster Willem Dafoe and oily schemer Justin Theroux.
The Bikeriders
Director: Jeff Nichols; casting director: Francine Maisler
Bringing mid-century Americana authentically to life with an effective and engaged international cast is one of the many special feats of Jeff Nichols’ lyrical and elegiac biker drama. Top-notch English thesps Jodie Comer and Tom Hardy are joined by homegrown heartthrob Austin Butler as the menage à Harley in the center of the film, but they’re ably assisted by Nichols’ stalwart Michael Shannon, “Walking Dead” standout Norman Reedus, indie ace Emory Cohen in a moving character turn, Aussie newcomer Toby Wallace as a menacing biker wannabe and Damon Herriman as a tragic true believer.
A Complete Unknown
Director: James Mangold; casting director: Yesi Ramirez
Putting together a cast to match the famous figures at the heart of this Bob Dylan biopic was the challenge that director James Mangold met head-on. In addition to the accolades for Timothée Chalamet as the Bard of Hibbing, Boyd Holbrook aces his Johnny Cash character, Ed Norton is transformed into folk legend Pete Seeger and Monica Barbaro segues from “Top Gun: Maverick” into kudos for her role as folk queen Joan Baez.
Conclave
Director: Edward Berger; casting directors: Barbara Giordani, Nina Gold, Francesco Vedovati, Martin Ware
How do you turn a novel about a bunch of old guys playing politics and praying for divine quarterbacking into a compelling film experience? Edward Berger built a formidable team of character pros around Ralph Fiennes, who anchors the tale with layers of gravitas. The schemers and searchers include the deftly duplicitous Stanley Tucci, the venal and determined John Lithgow, the cardinal with feet of clay Lucian Msamati, the fiercely determined soul sister Isabella Rossellini, the Opus Dei leader Sergio Castellitto and the saintly Carlos Diehz.
Emilia Pérez
Director: Jacques Audiard; casting directors: Christel Baras, Carla Hool
For Jacques Audiard to step into the arena of Mexican drug cartels while exploring his characters’ deepest truths, he needed a dexterous cast capable of veracity. And to make this journey via the film-musical genre was to add another seemingly impossible layer. Yet here are the justly acclaimed Zoe Saldaña as the legal fixer, Karla Sofía Gascón as the titular mobster in transition, Selena Gomez as their Mexican American wife, Edgar Ramirez as her doomed boytoy and Adriana Paz as the emotional key that unlocks the cipher at the center of the yarn.
Gladiator II
Director: Ridley Scott; casting director: Kate Rhodes James
One of the most remarkable feats of Ridley Scott’s swords and sandals epic is his ability to blend disparate acting styles into a tasty feast of spectacle and earnestness, delicious camp and high stakes. Anchoring his bravura action filmmaking are the performances of Paul Mescal and Pedro Pascal, both bravely playing straight men to some wild and wily characters who are conspiring to make Roman mayhem. First up is Denzel Washington as a self-righteous former slave whose revenge plans include matching the beastliness of his captors slash for gash, and those depraved co-emperors Fred Hechinger and Joseph Quinn, whose Kardashian brothers zeal for squeals steals the Colosseum show.
September 5
Director: Tim Fehlbaum; casting directors: Simone Bär, Nancy Foy, Lucinda Syson
Like a bolt of lightning stretched across the film’s screen time, “September 5” required a cast who could convey terror and determination, plucky acumen and professional anxiety with a microscopic lens of every second of their make-or-break actions. John Magaro is the canary in the newsroom, matching his captain Peter Sarsgaard in tenacity as their risky business sees them pivoting from sports news hounds to witnesses to history. Ben Chaplin tries to straddle the line between corporate hack and engaged conspirator while Leonie Benesch is a critical reminder of how male-dominated teams are often saved by women from their own sexist and myopic ways.
Wicked
Director: Jon M. Chu; casting directors: Tiffany Little Canfield, Bernard Telsey
Director Jon M. Chu’s bold and brave cinematic take on the hit Broadway musical involved all kinds of artistic choices and risks and they all pay off, especially his decision to cast the effervescent pop pixie Ariana Grande alongside the passionate stage titan Cynthia Erivo. Their journey of friendship and rivalry is the emotional core of a story that is startlingly political, a leap made effectively by Jeff Goldblum’s dodgy, smarmy and doddering Wizard, who’s ably assisted by the darkly dangerous aide de camp Michelle Yeoh. Balancing the dark with nimble wit and lightness of foot is Jonathan Bailey, while Ethan Slater and Marissa Bode make for a remarkably complex side duo on a compelling journey of their own.
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