Denzel Washington is one of the most Oscar-nominated actors in cinema history. Out of 9 nominations, he has been triumphant twice: once for Best Supporting Actor, and once for Best Actor in a Leading Role. His films have collectively grossed over $4.9 billion worldwide, making him a true titan in the industry.
As of writing, Denzel Washington is still widely considered to be in his thespian prime, regularly leading blockbuster movies and stealing the show in occasional supporting roles. So, chances are, there will be more Oscar nominations to come for this Hollywood legend. But in the meantime, let’s revisit every previous nomination and rank them from good to magnificent.
9. Flight (2012) – Best Actor Nomination
Denzel Washington is an actor with astonishing range. In Flight, he showed off the more quiet and reserved side of his framework as airline pilot Whip Whitaker, who makes a miracle landing after a mid-air catastrophe. However, he soon faces intense scrutiny and legal battles. Although the movie wasn’t a smash hit, Washington was nominated for Best Actor for his understated rendition.
Perhaps best known for his more loud and brash characters, this film allowed him to dabble in something much more reticent as a man battling his moral compass and arriving at a point in his life where he must finally take accountability. Seeing him transform from cocky and selfish to a man riddled with guilt and shame was both enthralling and heartbreaking to witness. Easily one of his most underrated roles.
8. Cry Freedom (1987) – Best Supporting Actor Nomination
Cry Freedom is perhaps the movie that made Denzel Washington known to the masses. It was certainly the part that let critics know just what a powerhouse he was, serving as his first ever Oscar nomination. At this point, he was still rather confined to the supporting actor realm, but this scene stealing rendition let everyone know that he was about to become a powerful leading man.
In Richard Attenborough‘s acclaimed biopic, Washington stomped into the role of Steve Biko, the anti-apartheid activist. Bringing forth remarkable charisma and conviction, his crackling performance lit up the screen with intensity. With every commanding scene, Washington was alight with passion and up-beat energy, particularly in his powerful speech scenes. Although some critics noted the film presented a somewhat idealized version of the historical figure, Washington’s ability to dominate the screen and convey both moral authority and human vulnerability established him as a star capable of carrying weighty historical dramas.
7. Fences (2016) – Best Actor Nomination
Adapted from the Pulitzer Prize-winning 1983 stage play by August Wilson, the 2016-released movie Fences is a shining example of a simple story told right. Washington not only carried the weight of the picture with his leading role, he also occupied the director’s chair as well. This period drama charts the Maxson family as they navigate working-class family life in Pittsburgh. As Troy (Washington), the father of the household, battles with the pain of his unrealized dreams of a career in baseball, his son Cory (Jovan Adepo) pursues the baseball career Troy lost, creating deep family conflict.
Fences was nominated for Best Motion Picture of the Year at the Academy Awards and Washington earned a Best Actor nomination. While the film didn’t win in either category, it still stands as one of Washington’s finest performances. Across his career, he has portrayed some characters that are extremely unlikeable. However, with this role, the more his character acts unsavoury, we start to feel for him as we discover the meanings behind his projections. It’s this layered portrayal that earned Washington his fifth Best Actor nomination, serving as a true testament to his range as an actor.
6. Roman J. Israel, Esq. (2017) – Best Actor Nomination
Dan Gilroy‘s legal thriller Roman J. Israel, Esq. offered Washington a refreshingly different role in 2017. Playing the titular legal savant, Washington portrays a civil rights lawyer stuck in a mid-’70s time warp – an introverted, socially awkward man with encyclopaedic knowledge of case law but limited grasp of social cues. This marked a far cry from Washington’s typically commanding screen presence, where he can often be loud, brash, and unrelenting.
Instead, Roman is rigid, principled, and uncomfortable in his own skin. He is forced to make morally difficult choices that go against his beliefs when the law company he co-founded fails. Washington’s subtle portrayal gives dimension to a character characterized by discomfort rather than charm by capturing Roman’s inner turmoil with subdued intensity. As The Guardian noted, Washington’s “Oscar-nominated performance gives this messy legal drama some zing” – a monument to how his talent elevates the material and anchors the entire film.
5. The Tragedy of Macbeth (2021) – Best Actor Nomination
Denzel Washington ascended to superstardom around the same time as visionary filmmakers the Coen Brothers. For years, people were vying for them to work together. In 2021, he technically became part of a Coen production, but the experience was complicated by the split between the Coen Brothers, resulting in a tonal shift.
Joel Coen‘s The Tragedy of Macbeth is a bold and fierce reimagining of Shakespeare’s most visceral tale of ambition and descent. Washington delivers a powerful, fatalistic performance as the titular Scottish general, capturing Macbeth’s psychological unraveling with haunting precision. The film’s existential dread is fuelled by the sizzling chemistry between Washington and three-time Oscar winner Frances McDormand, a true match for him. The two command the screen together against harsh black-and-white cinematography and cramped theatrical staging while Washington depicts Macbeth as more than just a villain or a man spiralling into dictatorship and madness. Rather, he is a man whose moral breakdown is as visually striking as Coen’s expressionist aesthetics. Washington earned another Best Actor nomination for his captivating rendition, but lost out to Will Smith.
4. The Hurricane (1999) – Best Actor Nomination
Denzel Washington’s powerful leading role in The Hurricane is potentially the biggest Best Actor Oscar snub of his career. That year, he was beaten to the punch by Kevin Spacey for his legendary role in American Beauty, a loss that’s probably easier to accept in retrospect. Norman Jewison‘s dramatic biopic follows the harrowing plight of Rubin ‘Hurricane’ Carter, a boxer wrongly imprisoned for murder.
As Rubin fights to protest his innocence, we are taken into the painfully long journey that nearly broke the man but found him friends for life through his legal aides and supporters. Again, Washington lit up the screen with magnetism as a man unwilling to back down. Yet underneath, there’s layers and layers of vulnerability, portraying a hardened fighter who is out of his depths in the biggest battle of his life.
3. Glory (1989) – Best Supporting Actor (Win)
Although his role in Cry Freedom demonstrated that he had the capabilities to lead a motion picture, it was Denzel Washington’s Oscar-winning supporting role in Glory that cemented him as one of the greats. Edward Zwick‘s Civil War epic follows the 54th Regiment, an all-Black Union Army unit, as they fight for their own emancipation. Washington plays Silas Trip, an escaped slave defined by rage, pride, and deep distrust of authority.
Washington enthrals with an energy that is impossible to take your eyes off, playing Trip as a confrontational man who initially refuses to fight. However, his anger simmering beneath the surface explodes in a devastating whipping scene that stands as one of cinema’s most powerful moments. And it was here that audiences got to see the full set of skills in Washington’s arsenal. The most notable aspect of his performance is how he portrays Trip’s evolution from a bitter cynic to a man with a constructive focus – a man redirecting his anger into activism. Washington’s Oscar victory over more experienced rivals reaffirmed that he was not a secondary player in the game, but an equal player. Over thirty years later, Glory still reminds audiences that the Civil War was not the only reason Black people fought for the Union, but for their own emancipation. Washington’s intense performance makes that fact resonate immensely.
2. Malcolm X (1992) – Best Actor Nomination
Playing such a legendary and polarizing man, Denzel Washington truly showcased his position as one of the finest actors of his generation with his challenging role in Malcolm X. This monumental biopic from Spike Lee traces Malcolm X’s complex journey from a life of crime through radical activism to his transformative pilgrimage to Mecca, depicting his unwavering evolution and fight against racial injustice. Crucially, the film stands as a potent statement against entertainment culture that routinely centers white savior narratives, instead centering Black history and Black resistance on their own terms.
Washington’s performance was extraordinary from the very first frame to the last. Most impressive was his capturing of every tiny mannerism, speech pattern, and all the nuances of Malcolm X’s presence and the authority he commanded. Washington did not just encapsulate the words, he captured the essence of the legend’s spirit, right down to the sharpness of his movements and the blazing intensity of his eyes. Simply put, Washington embraced every aspect of his transformation: the deep, unwavering, evolving, and ever-violent anger. His performance is surely among the greatest, if not the greatest, cinematographic biographical portrayals, and his nomination for Best Actor in a Leading role was well-deserved. A true masterclass in the embodiment of a monumental figure in all of his complexity.
1. Training Day (2001) – Best Actor (Win)
Training Day introduced us to a Denzel Washington we hadn’t seen before. This crime thriller centers on Jake (Ethan Hawke), a rookie cop who spends his first day as a Los Angeles narcotics officer with a rogue detective who isn’t what he appears to be. Washington fills the frame with menace and power as Alonzo Harris, the veteran officer who leads Jake down a dark and murky path. As Jake learns more and more troubling details about Alonzo, the ante is only heightened with every passing minute.
Washington took home his second-ever Oscar for his role as the crooked cop, and rightfully so. This was the first time audiences had seen him play such a foul, abusive, and disturbing character. Yet, despite these horrific flaws, Alonzo is oddly charming, captivating, and at times, likeable. Only an actor of such high calibre could pull this off. Washington’s role in Training Day is not just his best performance, but one of the greatest leading roles in cinema history.
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