RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – On Wednesday, November 25th, the New York Times published a list of the top 25 actors of the 21st century to date. Brazilian actress Sonia Braga, 70, is ranked 24th. The newspaper’s film critics Manohla Dargis and A. O. Scott, responsible for choosing the artists, emphasized the actress’s performance in the films “Aquarius” (2016) and “Bacurau” (2019), both by Kleber Mendonça Filho.
“She plays Domingas [in ‘Bacurau’], a small town doctor with a drinking problem and a sometimes abrasive personality – a comic and glamorless role that no one else could have played with such depth and grace. Or, as director Mendonça said: ‘In a symphony, she would be the piano,'” wrote Scott.
The list includes world-renowned artists such as Gael Carcía Bernal (25th), Catherine Deneuve (21st), Joaquin Phoenix (12th), Viola Davis (9th), Nicole Kidman (5th) and Keanu Reeves (4th). In the first three positions are Denzel Washington (1st), Isabelle Huppert (2nd) and Daniel Day-Lewis (3rd).
In the ranking presentation text, the New York Times critics point out that there is no formula to choose the best artists of the past 20 years. They consider the list subjective and “possibly scandalous in its omissions”. For the selection, Manohla Dargis and A. O. Scott said they focused on this century and looked beyond Hollywood. “These are 25 reasons why we still love movies, maybe more than ever,” they wrote.