20 Best Movie Performances Of 2016

17. Ruth Negga - Loving

In one of the sure breakout performances of the year, Ruth Negga gives a deeply affecting portrayal of courage under fire as Virginia resident Mildred Loving, who along with her husband Richard (Joel Edgerton), challenged laws prohibiting interracial marriage in the 1960s.

It's an undeniably potent tale even by sheer virtue of its heartbreaking truth, but Negga takes it further with her dignified turn as a put-upon woman demonstrating incredible resolve and grace in the ugliest of circumstances.

In a time of deep racial tensions in the U.S. and, well, Donald Trump, Negga's sublime work couldn't feel much more timely, but even in a vacuum this is easily career-best work from the actress.