Equally as competitive, and equally as frightening as the women in my building, these are 5 strong performances.

• Viola Davis, Ma Rainey's Black Bottom

  • A killer performance that would win in most years. God I was afraid of Viola's Ma.

• Andra Day, The United States vs. Billie Holiday

  • Yes, I'm giving her credit for the singing. Yes, I'm aware it's not a Grammy Award. The choice to imitate any iconic voice, speaking or singing, is a massive risk and Billie Holiday? One of the toughest. The acting was also layered. We didn't get a predictable 'poor addicted woman gets abused by the white man' character (although the movie? Hate to dis a Philly guy, but sometimes Lee Daniels surprises us...but this was not one of those times.)

• Vanessa Kirby, Pieces of a Woman

  • Fell in love with Ms. Kirby's acting in The Crown. The lesson here? Don't be the only thing going for a movie -- unless you're Frances McDormand.

• Frances McDormand, Nomadland

  • See above. This would be a terrible drama (or an above average documentary) without Frances. She has more toothless-smiles than the Inuit have words for snow. I am rooting for Andra Day, but think McDormand's performance -- which carried the movie -- careys the day. Like that?

• Carey Mulligan, Promising Young Woman

  • Loved her in An Education, but was blown away by this performance. The sad "in any other year" label here. Actually, she might be ranked 5th, which is a trophy-sin given this clever movie and stellar performance.