10 Actors Who Just Recently Did Their Best Work Ever

Mikey Madison has been around for a few years, but she's not the most well-known of names. It's unlikely many would've predicted her giving one of the best performances of the year, put it that way. 

Madison plays sex worker Anora 'Ani' Mikheeva in Anora, Sean Baker's absurdly accomplished dramedy, and this was a tough role for any young actor to take on. The part required Madison to do multiple nude scenes, speak Russian, and display a ton of emotional range, as the character goes through many emotional states during the film. 

The star does this with ease, faultlessly capturing both the exuberant joy of young love and the heartbreak Anora endures in the film's latter stretches. Furthermore, she's hysterically funny in Anora's comedic scenes, and she speaks Russian convincingly too. 

Mikey Madison absolutely disappears into the role of Ani. Her acting is so embodied and so lived-in that it's easy to forget you're watching a character and not documentary footage of a real human being. Anora was already a brilliant movie, yet Madison's work elevates it even further to a borderline masterpiece. It's thanks to her work that audiences will care so deeply about her character and everything that happens to her. 

And so, with Anora, a star is born. If Mikey Madison doesn't get nominated for an Oscar, we riot.