Best Film Lead Actress Nominees (Screen Awards 2025)

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The Screen Awards are here! Created by a partnership between CBR, Collider, MovieWeb, and ScreenRant, these awards celebrate the best movies, TV shows, and anime of the year. A panel of critics, industry professionals, and our editors chose the nominees, drawing from a wide range of media across different eras, genres, and cultural landscapes.

This group of women offers a powerful look at the full range of human emotion and experience. Some of their performances are incredibly moving, filled with intense sadness and even a touch of wildness. Others reveal that strength can be found in unexpected places. Throughout it all, they demonstrate remarkable humor and the ability to bounce back, showcasing a determined spirit when facing difficult times.

I’m thrilled to announce this year’s nominees for Best Lead Actress in a Film, as ScreenRant’s Lead Film Critic. The incredible actresses in contention are Chase Infiniti, who delivers a powerful performance as a rising rebel in Paul Thomas Anderson’s One Battle After Another; Emma Stone, portraying a ruthless tech CEO in Yorgos Lanthimos’s Bugonia; Jessie Buckley, giving a heartbreaking performance as a mother dealing with loss in Chloé Zhao’s Hamnet; Renate Reinsve, who plays a stage actress grappling with family issues in Joachim Trier’s Sentimental Value; and Rose Byrne, as an exhausted mother pushed to her limits in Mary Bronstein’s If I Had Legs I’d Kick You.

Here are your nominees for Best Lead Actress at the 1st annual Screen Awards.

Chase Infiniti

The new film, One Battle After Another, features a star-studded cast including Leonardo DiCaprio, Benicio del Toro, and Sean Penn. However, it might be best remembered for introducing Chase Infiniti, who delivers a remarkable performance in her first film role. Infiniti plays Willa, the daughter of Bob (DiCaprio) and Perfidia (Teyana Taylor), a remarkably intelligent and mature young woman unexpectedly caught up in a dangerous chase.

Infiniti is a complex character, realistically portrayed as someone transitioning into adulthood. She’s both politically savvy and deeply devoted to her family, yet still struggles with the uncertainties of being a teenager. Her compelling performance has earned her nominations for several prestigious awards, including the Golden Globe and Critics Choice, and suggests a long and successful career ahead.

Emma Stone

Emma Stone delivers arguably her best performance yet in Bugonia, her third film with the unconventional director Yorgos Lanthimos. The movie centers on the strange connection between Teddy, a struggling conspiracy theorist (Jesse Plemons), and Michelle Fuller (Stone), a tech CEO he’s kidnapped – a character inspired by Bryan Johnson. It explores widespread fears about the power of the wealthy, the environmental crisis, and the feeling that we may not have true control over our lives.

Stone delivers a chillingly precise performance as Fuller, portraying her as both unsettling and brilliant. She plays the character with such subtlety that it remains ambiguous until the very end whether Fuller is a puppet or a puppeteer. It’s a powerfully captivating performance.

Jessie Buckley

Jessie Buckley delivers a powerfully moving performance in Hamnet that is truly exceptional. In this adaptation of Maggie O’Farrell’s novel, directed by Chloé Zhao, Buckley plays Agnes, the spirited and strong-willed wife of William Shakespeare. Seeing her fall in love feels fresh and new, and her portrayal of a mother’s grief is deeply affecting and feels incredibly real.

While Buckley has already gained recognition, including an Oscar nomination for The Lost Daughter (2022), her performance as Agnes is likely to be the most memorable of her career so far. She brings Agnes’s passionate heart, unwavering love, and fierce anger to life in a way that feels incredibly real and stays with you long after you’ve seen it.

Renate Reinsve

I was completely blown away by Renate Reinsve in Joachim Trier’s The Worst Person in the World – she was so raw and captivating, earning her deserved recognition at Cannes and a BAFTA nod. But her performance in Sentimental Value is something else entirely. She has this incredible ability to make you feel everything she’s feeling, and she brings that to a really complex character. She plays Nora, the daughter of a famous director she barely knows, and it’s heartbreaking to watch her navigate all this pressure, old wounds, and hidden resentment. It’s a beautifully nuanced portrayal of someone quietly struggling, and I found myself completely drawn into her world.

Reinsve delivers a stunning performance with her natural, open-eyed vulnerability. She doesn’t act the role so much as inhabit it, avoiding exaggerated displays of emotion. This subtlety makes her portrayal of Nora incredibly compelling. It’s a joy to watch Nora navigate her complicated relationships with her sister, Agnes, and her father, as well as her creative work – all these elements intertwine in unexpected and fascinating ways.

Rose Byrne

Director Mary Bronstein returns after fourteen years with a new film starring Rose Byrne, who delivers a stunning performance. Byrne plays Linda, a therapist facing a cascade of crises: her child has a mysterious illness, her house is falling apart, a patient has vanished with her baby, and her husband is always away. Byrne brilliantly portrays Linda as a woman on the brink, balancing between overwhelming despair and losing control.

Watching her perform is incredibly tense, like waiting for something to break. While Byrne is a seasoned actor in film and TV, her portrayal of Linda is her most impressive work yet. She’s already won a Silver Bear award, and with nominations for a Golden Globe and Critics Choice Award, many believe an Oscar could be within reach.

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2025-12-12 20:49