Satellite Award for Best Actor in a Motion Picture

The Satellite Award for Best Actor in a Motion Picture is an annual award given by the International Press Academy as one of its Satellite Awards. The category has gone through several changes since its inception.

• From 1996 to 2010, two categories based on genre were presented, Best Actor – Motion Picture Drama and Best Actor – Motion Picture Comedy or Musical
• In 2011, the IPA pared down its Satellite nominations in the motion picture categories from 22 to 19 classifications; the change reflects the merger of drama and comedy under a general Best Picture heading, including the Best Actor/Actress headings and the Supporting headings.
• In 2016 and 2017, two winners were announced within the Best Actor category, one for the performance by an actor in a major studio film and other for a performance in an independent film.

Satellite Award for Best Actor
The 2024 (Drama) recipient: Colman Domingo
Awarded for	Best Actor in a Drama Motion Picture Best Actor in a Comedy or Musical Motion Picture
Country	United States
Presented by	International Press Academy
First award	1996
Currently held by	Drama: Colman Domingo – Sing Sing (2024) Comedy or Musical: Keith Kupferer – Ghostlight (2024)
Website	http://www.pressacademy.com/

Since 2018, the two categories based on genre are presented replacing the Best Actor in a Motion Picture category for the Best Actor – Motion Picture Drama and Best Actor – Motion Picture Comedy or Musical categories previously presented.

Winners and nominees

Best Actor – Motion Picture Drama (1996–2010, 2018–present)

Year	Actor	Film	Role
1996 [1]	Geoffrey Rush	Shine	David Helfgott
	William H. Macy	Fargo	Jerry Lundegaard
	Christopher Eccleston	Jude	Jude Fawley
	Ralph Fiennes	The English Patient	László Almásy
	Billy Bob Thornton	Sling Blade	Karl Childers
	James Woods	Killer: A Journal of Murder	Carl Panzram
1997 [2]	Robert Duvall	The Apostle	Euliss "Sonny" Dewey / The Apostle E.F.
	Russell Crowe	L.A. Confidential	Officer Wendell "Bud" White
	Mark Wahlberg	Boogie Nights	Eddie Adams ("Dirk Diggler")
	Djimon Hounsou	Amistad	Sengbe Pieh / Joseph Cinqué
	Leonardo DiCaprio	Titanic	Jack Dawson
	Matt Damon	Good Will Hunting	Will Hunting
1998 [3]	Edward Norton	American History X	Derek Vinyard
	Stephen Fry	Wilde	Oscar Wilde
	Brendan Gleeson	The General	Martin Cahill
	Derek Jacobi	Love Is the Devil: Study for a Portrait of Francis Bacon	Francis Bacon
	Ian McKellen	Gods and Monsters	James Whale
	Nick Nolte	Affliction	Wade Whitehouse
1999 [4]	Terence Stamp	The Limey	Wilson
	Kevin Spacey	American Beauty	Lester Burnham
	Russell Crowe	The Insider	Dr. Jeffrey Wigand
	Richard Farnsworth	The Straight Story	Alvin Straight
	Al Pacino	The Insider	Lowell Bergman
	Denzel Washington	The Hurricane	Rubin "Hurricane" Carter
2000 [5]	Geoffrey Rush	Quills	Marquis de Sade
	Jamie Bell	Billy Elliot	Billy Elliot
	Sean Connery	Finding Forrester	William Forrester
	Russell Crowe	Gladiator	Maximus Decimus Meridius
	Ed Harris	Pollock	Jackson Pollock
	Denzel Washington	Remember the Titans	Herman Boone
2001 [6][7]	Brian Cox	L.I.E.	Big John Harrigan
	Russell Crowe	A Beautiful Mind	John Forbes Nash Jr.
	Guy Pearce	Memento	Leonard Shelby
	Sean Penn	I Am Sam	Sam Dawson
	Billy Bob Thornton	Monster's Ball	Hank Grotowski
	Denzel Washington	Training Day	Detective Alonzo Harris
2002 [8]	Michael Caine	The Quiet American	Thomas Fowler
	Daniel Day-Lewis	Gangs of New York	William "Bill the Butcher" Cutting
	Tom Hanks	Road to Perdition	Michael Sullivan
	Jack Nicholson	About Schmidt	Warren Schmidt
	Edward Norton	25th Hour	Monty Brogan
	Robin Williams	One Hour Photo	Seymour Parrish
2003 [9]	Sean Penn	21 Grams	Paul Rivers
		Mystic River	Jimmy Markum
	Paddy Considine	In America	Johnny Sullivan
	Hayden Christensen	Shattered Glass	Stephen Glass
	Tom Cruise	The Last Samurai	Cpt. Nathan Algren
	Jude Law	Cold Mountain	W. P. Inman
	William H. Macy	The Cooler	Bernie Lootz
2004 [10]	Don Cheadle	Hotel Rwanda	Paul Rusesabagina
	Kevin Bacon	The Woodsman	Walter
	Javier Bardem	The Sea Inside (Mar adentro)	Ramón Sampedro
	Johnny Depp	Finding Neverland	J. M. Barrie
	Gael García Bernal	The Motorcycle Diaries (Diarios de motocicleta)	Ernesto Guevara de la Serna
	Liam Neeson	Kinsey	Dr. Alfred Kinsey
2005 [11]	Philip Seymour Hoffman	Capote	Truman Capote
	Jake Gyllenhaal	Jarhead	LCpl./PFC. Anthony Swofford
	Heath Ledger	Brokeback Mountain	Ennis Del Mar
	Tommy Lee Jones	The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada	Pete Perkins
	Viggo Mortensen	A History of Violence	Tom Stall / Joey Cusack
	David Strathairn	Good Night, and Good Luck	Edward R. Murrow
2006 [12][13]	Forest Whitaker	The Last King of Scotland	Idi Amin
	Leonardo DiCaprio	Blood Diamond	Danny Archer
	Ryan Gosling	Half Nelson	Dan Dunne
	Joshua Jackson	Aurora Borealis	Duncan Shorter
	Derek Luke	Catch a Fire	Patrick Chamusso
	Patrick Wilson	Little Children	Brad Adamson[citation needed]
2007 [14][15]	Viggo Mortensen	Eastern Promises	Nikolai Luzhin
	Josh Brolin	No Country for Old Men	Llewelyn Moss
	Christian Bale	Rescue Dawn	Dieter Dengler
	Tommy Lee Jones	In the Valley of Elah	Hank Deerfield
	Frank Langella	Starting Out in the Evening	Leonard Schiller
	Denzel Washington	American Gangster	Frank Lucas
2008 [16]	Richard Jenkins	The Visitor	Walter Vale
	Frank Langella	Frost/Nixon	Richard Nixon
	Leonardo DiCaprio	Revolutionary Road	Frank Wheeler
	Sean Penn	Milk	Harvey Milk
	Mickey Rourke	The Wrestler	Robin Ramzinski / Randy "The Ram" Robinson
	Mark Ruffalo	What Doesn't Kill You	Brian Reilly
2009 [17][18]	Jeremy Renner	The Hurt Locker	SFC. William James
	Jeff Bridges	Crazy Heart	Otis "Bad" Blake
	Hugh Dancy	Adam	Adam Raki
	Johnny Depp	Public Enemies	John Dillinger
	Colin Firth	A Single Man	George Falconer
	Michael Sheen	The Damned United	Brian Clough
2010 [19]	Colin Firth	The King's Speech	King George VI
	Javier Bardem	Biutiful	Uxbal
	Leonardo DiCaprio	Inception	Dominic "Dom" Cobb
	Michael Douglas	Solitary Man	Ben Kalmen
	Robert Duvall	Get Low	Felix Bush
	Jesse Eisenberg	The Social Network	Mark Zuckerberg
	James Franco	127 Hours	Aron Ralston
	Ryan Gosling	Blue Valentine	Dean Pereira
2018 [20]	Willem Dafoe	At Eternity's Gate	Vincent van Gogh
	Ben Foster	Leave No Trace	Will
	Ryan Gosling	First Man	Neil Armstrong
	Ethan Hawke	First Reformed	Ernst Toller
	Lucas Hedges	Boy Erased	Jared Eamons
	Robert Redford	The Old Man & the Gun	Forrest Tucker
2019 [21]	Christian Bale	Ford v Ferrari	Ken Miles
	Adam Driver	Marriage Story	Charlie Barber
	Antonio Banderas	Pain and Glory	Salvador Mallo
	George MacKay	1917	Lance Corporal William Schofield
	Joaquin Phoenix	Joker	Arthur Fleck / Joker
	Mark Ruffalo	Dark Waters	Robert Bilott
2020 [22][23]	Riz Ahmed	Sound of Metal	Ruben Stone
	Chadwick Boseman (posthumous)	Ma Rainey's Black Bottom	Levee Green
	Anthony Hopkins	The Father	Anthony
	Delroy Lindo	Da 5 Bloods	Paul
	Gary Oldman	Mank	Herman J. Mankiewicz
	Steven Yeun	Minari	Jacob Yi
2021 [24]	Benedict Cumberbatch	The Power of the Dog	Phil Burbank
	Denzel Washington	The Tragedy of Macbeth	Lord Macbeth
	Clifton Collins Jr.	Jockey	Jackson Silva
	Joaquin Phoenix	C'mon C'mon	Johnny
	Tom Skerritt	East of the Mountains	Ben Givens
	Will Smith	King Richard	Richard Williams
2022	Brendan Fraser	The Whale	Charlie
	Tom Cruise	Top Gun: Maverick	Captain Pete "Maverick" Mitchell
	Hugh Jackman	The Son	Peter Miller
	Gabriel LaBelle	The Fabelmans	Samuel "Sammy" Fabelman
	Bill Nighy	Living	Mr. Williams
	Mark Wahlberg	Father Stu	Father Stuart "Stu" Long
2023 [25][26]	Cillian Murphy	Oppenheimer	J. Robert Oppenheimer
	Bradley Cooper	Maestro	Leonard Bernstein
	Leonardo DiCaprio	Killers of the Flower Moon	Ernest Burkhart
	Colman Domingo	Rustin	Bayard Rustin
	Franz Rogowski	Passages	Tomas Freiburg
	Andrew Scott	All of Us Strangers	Adam
2024	Colman Domingo	Sing Sing	John "Divine G" Whitfield
	Adrien Brody	The Brutalist	László Tóth
	Timothée Chalamet	A Complete Unknown	Bob Dylan
	Daniel Craig	Queer	William Lee
	Ralph Fiennes	Conclave	Thomas Cardinal Lawrence
	Hugh Grant	Heretic	Mr. Reed

Best Actor – Motion Picture Musical or Comedy (1996–2010, 2018–present)

Year	Actor	Film	Role
1996	Tom Cruise	Jerry Maguire	Jerry Maguire
	Nathan Lane	The Birdcage	Albert Goldman
	Eddie Murphy	The Nutty Professor	Sherman Klump / Various Characters
	Jack Nicholson	Mars Attacks!	James Dale
	Stanley Tucci	Big Night	Secondo
1997	Jack Nicholson	As Good as It Gets	Melvin Udall
	Robert Carlyle	The Full Monty	Gary "Gaz" Schofield
	Dustin Hoffman	Wag the Dog	Stanley Motss
	Tommy Lee Jones	Men in Black	Kevin Brown / Agent K
	Kevin Kline	In & Out	Howard Brackett
	Howard Stern	Private Parts	Himself
1998	Ian Bannen	Waking Ned	Jackie O'Shea
	David Kelly		Michael O'Sullivan
	Warren Beatty	Bulworth	Senator Jay Billington Bulworth
	Jeff Bridges	The Big Lebowski	Jeffrey "The Dude" Lebowski
	Michael Caine	Little Voice	Ray Say
	Robin Williams	Patch Adams	Hunter "Patch" Adams
1999	Philip Seymour Hoffman	Flawless	Rusty
	Jim Carrey	Man on the Moon	Andy Kaufman
	Johnny Depp	Sleepy Hollow	Ichabod Crane
	Rupert Everett	An Ideal Husband	Arthur Goring
	Sean Penn	Sweet and Lowdown	Emmet Ray
	Steve Zahn	Happy, Texas	Wayne Wayne Wayne Jr. (a.k.a. David)
2000	Michael Douglas	Wonder Boys	Grady Tripp
	George Clooney	O Brother, Where Art Thou?	Ulysses Everett McGill
	Richard Gere	Dr. T & the Women	Dr. Sullivan Travis (Dr. T)
	Christopher Guest	Best in Show	Harlan Pepper
	Eddie Murphy	Nutty Professor II: The Klumps	Sherman Klump / Various Characters
	Edward Norton	Keeping the Faith	Brian Finn
2001	Ewan McGregor	Moulin Rouge!	Christian
	Colin Firth	Bridget Jones's Diary	Mark Darcy
	Gene Hackman	The Royal Tenenbaums	Royal Tenenbaum
	John Cameron Mitchell	Hedwig and the Angry Inch	Hansel Schmidt / Hedwig Robinson
	Ben Stiller	Zoolander	Derek Zoolander
	Chris Tucker	Rush Hour 2	James Carter
2002	Kieran Culkin	Igby Goes Down	Jason "Igby" Slocumb Jr.
	Nicolas Cage	Adaptation.	Charlie and Donald Kaufman
	Hugh Grant	About a Boy	Will Freeman
	Sam Rockwell	Confessions of a Dangerous Mind	Chuck Barris
	Adam Sandler	Punch-Drunk Love	Barry Egan
	Aaron Stanford	Tadpole	Oscar Grubman
2003	Bill Murray	Lost in Translation	Bob Harris
	Jack Black	School of Rock	Dewey Finn
	Johnny Depp	Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl	Capt. Jack Sparrow
	Robert Downey Jr.	The Singing Detective	Dan Dark
	Paul Giamatti	American Splendor	Harvey Pekar
	Billy Bob Thornton	Bad Santa	Willie T. Stokes
2004	Jamie Foxx	Ray	Ray Charles
	Gerard Butler	The Phantom of the Opera	The Phantom
	Jim Carrey	Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind	Joel Barish
	Paul Giamatti	Sideways	Miles Raymond
	Kevin Kline	De-Lovely	Cole Porter
	Bill Murray	The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou	Steve Zissou
2005	Terrence Howard	Hustle & Flow	DJay
	Kevin Costner	The Upside of Anger	Denny Davies
	Robert Downey Jr.	Kiss Kiss Bang Bang	Harry Lockhart
	Cillian Murphy	Breakfast on Pluto	Patrick "Kitten" Braden
	Bill Murray	Broken Flowers	Don Johnston
	Joaquin Phoenix	Walk the Line	Johnny Cash
2006	Joseph Cross	Running with Scissors	Augusten Burroughs
	Sacha Baron Cohen	Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan	Borat Sagdiyev
	Aaron Eckhart	Thank You for Smoking	Nick Naylor
	Will Ferrell	Stranger than Fiction	Harold Crick
	Peter O'Toole	Venus	Maurice Russell
2007	Ryan Gosling	Lars and the Real Girl	Lars Lindstrom
	Don Cheadle	Talk to Me	Ralph Greene Jr.
	Richard Gere	The Hoax	Clifford Irving
	Ben Kingsley	You Kill Me	Frank Falenczyk
	Clive Owen	Shoot 'Em Up	Mr. Smith
	Seth Rogen	Knocked Up	Ben Stone
2008	Ricky Gervais	Ghost Town	Bertram Pincus
	Josh Brolin	W.	George W. Bush
	Michael Cera	Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist	Nick O'Leary
	Brendan Gleeson	In Bruges	Ken Daley
	Sam Rockwell	Choke	Victor Mancini
	Mark Ruffalo	The Brothers Bloom	Stephen
2009	Michael Stuhlbarg	A Serious Man	Larry Gopnik
	George Clooney	Up in the Air	Ryan Bingham
	Bradley Cooper	The Hangover	Phil Wenneck
	Matt Damon	The Informant!	Mark Whitacre
	Daniel Day-Lewis	Nine	Guido Contini
2010	Michael Cera	Scott Pilgrim vs. the World	Scott Pilgrim
	Steve Carell	Dinner for Schmucks	Barry Speck
	Romain Duris	Heartbreaker	Alex Lippi
	Andy García	City Island	Vince Rizzo
	Jake Gyllenhaal	Love & Other Drugs	Jamie Randall
	John Malkovich	Red	Marvin Boggs
	John C. Reilly	Cyrus	John Kilpatrick
2018	Rami Malek	Bohemian Rhapsody	Freddie Mercury
	Bradley Cooper	A Star Is Born	Jackson Maine
	Lin-Manuel Miranda	Mary Poppins Returns	Jack
	Viggo Mortensen	Green Book	Frank "Tony Lip" Vallelonga
	Nick Robinson	Love, Simon	Simon Spier
	John David Washington	BlacKkKlansman	Detective Ron Stallworth
2019	Taron Egerton	Rocketman	Elton John
	Daniel Craig	Knives Out	Detective Benoit Blanc
	Leonardo DiCaprio	Once Upon a Time in Hollywood	Rick Dalton
	Eddie Murphy	Dolemite Is My Name	Rudy Ray Moore
	Adam Sandler	Uncut Gems	Howard Ratner
	Taika Waititi	Jojo Rabbit	Adolf Hitler
2020	Sacha Baron Cohen	Borat Subsequent Moviefilm	Borat Sagdiyev
	Lin-Manuel Miranda	Hamilton	Alexander Hamilton
	Leslie Odom Jr.		Aaron Burr
	Dev Patel	The Personal History of David Copperfield	David Copperfield
	Andy Samberg	Palm Springs	Nyles
2021	Andrew Garfield	tick, tick... BOOM!	Jonathan Larson
	Peter Dinklage	Cyrano	Cyrano de Bergerac
	Anthony Ramos	In the Heights	Usnavi de la Vega
2022	Austin Butler	Elvis	Elvis Presley
	Diego Calva	Babylon	Manny Torres
	Daniel Craig	Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery	Detective Benoit Blanc
	Colin Farrell	The Banshees of Inisherin	Pádraic Súilleabháin
	Ralph Fiennes	The Menu	Julian Slowik
	Adam Sandler	Hustle	Stanley Sugerman
2023 [25][26]	Paul Giamatti	The Holdovers	Paul Hunham
	Nicolas Cage	Dream Scenario	Paul Matthews
	Barry Keoghan	Saltburn	Oliver Quick
	Joaquin Phoenix	Beau Is Afraid	Beau Wassermann
	Jeffrey Wright	American Fiction	Thelonious "Monk" Ellison
2024	Keith Kupferer	Ghostlight	Dan Mueller
	Jesse Eisenberg	A Real Pain	David Kaplan
	Ryan Gosling	The Fall Guy	Colt Seavers
	Michael Keaton	Beetlejuice Beetlejuice	Betelgeuse
	John Magaro	LaRoy, Texas	Ray

Best Actor – Motion Picture (2011–2017)

Year	Actor	Film	Role
2011 [27][28]	Ryan Gosling	Drive	The Driver
	George Clooney	The Descendants	Matthew "Matt" King
	Leonardo DiCaprio	J. Edgar	J. Edgar Hoover
	Michael Fassbender	Shame	Brandon Sullivan
	Brendan Gleeson	The Guard	Sergeant Gerry Boyle
	Tom Hardy	Warrior	Tommy Riordan Conlon
	Woody Harrelson	Rampart	Officer David "Dave" Brown
	Gary Oldman	Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy	George Smiley
	Brad Pitt	Moneyball	Billy Beane
	Michael Shannon	Take Shelter	Curtis LaForche
2012 [29][30]	Bradley Cooper	Silver Linings Playbook	Patrizio "Pat" Solitano Jr.
	Daniel Day-Lewis	Lincoln	Abraham Lincoln
	John Hawkes	The Sessions	Mark O'Brien
	Hugh Jackman	Les Misérables	Jean Valjean
	Joaquin Phoenix	The Master	Freddie Quell
	Omar Sy	The Intouchables	Bakary "Driss" Bassri
	Denzel Washington	Flight	Captain William "Whip" Whitaker Sr.
2013 [31][32]	Matthew McConaughey	Dallas Buyers Club	Ron Woodroof
	Christian Bale	American Hustle	Irving Rosenfeld
	Bruce Dern	Nebraska	Woodrow "Woody" Grant
	Leonardo DiCaprio	The Wolf of Wall Street	Jordan Belfort
	Chiwetel Ejiofor	12 Years a Slave	Solomon Northup
	Tom Hanks	Captain Phillips	Captain Richard Phillips
	Robert Redford	All Is Lost	Our Man
	Forest Whitaker	The Butler	Cecil Gaines
2014 [33][34]	Michael Keaton	Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance)	Riggan Thomson / Birdman
	Steve Carell	Foxcatcher	John Eleuthère du Pont
	Benedict Cumberbatch	The Imitation Game	Alan Turing
	Jake Gyllenhaal	Nightcrawler	Louis "Lou" Bloom
	David Oyelowo	Selma	Martin Luther King Jr.
	Eddie Redmayne	The Theory of Everything	Stephen Hawking
	Miles Teller	Whiplash	Andrew Neiman
2015 [35]	Leonardo DiCaprio	The Revenant	Hugh Glass
	Matt Damon	The Martian	Mark Watney
	Johnny Depp	Black Mass	James "Whitey" Bulger
	Michael Fassbender	Steve Jobs	Steve Jobs
	Tom Hardy	Legend	Ronald "Ronnie" and Reginald "Reggie" Kray
	Eddie Redmayne	The Danish Girl	Lili Elbe / Einar Wegener
	Will Smith	Concussion	Dr. Bennet Omalu
2016 [36]	Andrew Garfield	Hacksaw Ridge	Desmond T. Doss
	Viggo Mortensen	Captain Fantastic	Ben Cash
	Casey Affleck	Manchester by the Sea	Lee Chandler
	Joel Edgerton	Loving	Richard Loving
	Joseph Gordon-Levitt	Snowden	Edward Snowden
	Ryan Gosling	La La Land	Sebastian Wilder
	Tom Hanks	Sully	Captain Chesley "Sully" Sullenberger
	Denzel Washington	Fences	Troy Maxson
2017 [37][38]	Gary Oldman	Darkest Hour	Winston Churchill
	Harry Dean Stanton	Lucky	Lucky
	Daniel Day-Lewis	Phantom Thread	Reynolds Woodcock
	James Franco	The Disaster Artist	Tommy Wiseau
	Jake Gyllenhaal	Stronger	Jeff Bauman
	Robert Pattinson	Good Time	Constantine "Connie" Nikas
	Jeremy Renner	Wind River	Cory Lambert

Multiple nominations

9 nominations

• Leonardo DiCaprio

7 nominations

• Denzel Washington

6 nominations

• Ryan Gosling

5 nominations

• Johnny Depp
• Joaquin Phoenix

4 nominations

• Bradley Cooper
• Russell Crowe
• Daniel Day-Lewis
• Jake Gyllenhaal
• Viggo Mortensen
• Sean Penn

3 nominations

• Christian Bale
• Steve Carell
• George Clooney
• Matt Damon
• Colin Firth
• Paul Giamatti
• Brendan Gleeson
• Tom Hanks
• Tommy Lee Jones
• Eddie Murphy
• Bill Murray
• Jack Nicholson
• Edward Norton
• Gary Oldman
• Mark Ruffalo
• Billy Bob Thornton

2 nominations

• Javier Bardem
• Jeff Bridges
• Josh Brolin
• Nicolas Cage
• Michael Caine
• Jim Carrey
• Michael Cera
• Don Cheadle
• Sacha Baron Cohen
• Tom Cruise
• Benedict Cumberbatch
• Michael Douglas
• Robert Downey Jr.
• Robert Duvall
• Michael Fassbender
• James Franco
• Andrew Garfield
• Richard Gere
• Tom Hardy
• Philip Seymour Hoffman
• Kevin Kline
• Frank Langella
• William H. Macy
• Lin-Manuel Miranda
• Cillian Murphy
• Robert Redford
• Eddie Redmayne
• Jeremy Renner
• Sam Rockwell
• Geoffrey Rush
• Adam Sandler
• Will Smith
• Forest Whitaker
• Robin Williams

Multiple wins

2 wins

• Andrew Garfield
• Ryan Gosling
• Philip Seymour Hoffman
• Viggo Mortensen
• Geoffrey Rush

See also

• Academy Award for Best Actor
• Golden Globe Award for Best Actor – Motion Picture Musical or Comedy
• Golden Globe Award for Best Actor – Motion Picture Drama
• Critics' Choice Movie Award for Best Actor