2026 is truly the year of Anne Hathaway. The Academy Award winner has five major releases on the calendar this year. Across those projects, she tackles smaller scale dramas all the way to epic blockbusters of mythological proportions.
She plays a pop star, an iconic mythological figure, a mother protecting her family from dinosaurs, a comatose writer with a dark secret, and reprises one of her most beloved roles twenty years later.
Hathaway’s 2026 slate alone confirms the impeccable range she’s demonstrated across her entire career. With the Year of Hathaway halfway over and her next release, The End of Oak Street, hitting theaters, it felt like a great time to countdown her ten best performances.
Without further ado, here are the Top 10 Anne Hathaway Performances.
10. The Dark Knight Rises (2012)
Hathaway’s performance as Selina Kyle, aka Catwoman, often gets lost in the shuffle when it comes to conversations about iconic interpretations of the character. The fact of the matter is she deserves to be in the conversation with the likes of Eartha Kitt and Michelle Pfeiffer.
Despite the looming legacy of the role, she fearlessly dons the cat ears and makes Selina entirely her own in Christopher Nolan’s conclusion to his Dark Knight Trilogy.
Hathaway taps into Selina’s ability to morph into exactly who she needs to be in any given scenario. She flips a switch in every scene she’s in, from innocent bystander to the mischievous villain we know and love.
What sets Hathaway’s performance apart, though, is how she grounds it in Selina’s survival instincts. There’s a severity and sadness that Hathaway channels in Selina’s quieter moments that rounds out the character beautifully.
9. Ocean’s Eight (2018)
No one is having a better time in Ocean’s Eight than Hathaway. She plays Daphne Kluger, a vapid actress who unwittingly becomes the target of the film’s central heist and the primary source for a lot of the comedy in the film.
As Daphne, Hathaway displays a sillier, over-the-top side that we don’t see from her as often. She revels in every ridiculous thing Daphne says, but never does so disparagingly. Hathaway plays her with the utmost sincerity.
Throughout the film, everyone writes Daphne’s intelligence off and the audience gets swept up in that way of thinking as well. We come to find out that simply isn’t true and Daphne has much more going on upstairs than she lets on. The brilliance of Hathaway’s performance is that, upon rewatch, the bread crumbs are all present, keying in to Daphne’s duplicitous nature without showing her entire hand.
8. Eileen (2023)
As Rebecca Saint John, a new and mysterious psychologist at a corrections facility for teenage boys, Hathaway breaks through the bleak, dark tone of Eileen with a tantalizing performance. She’s aloof and almost floats through the room, pulling Eileen (Thomasin McKenzie) along for the ride.
It’s the backend of the film where Hathaway subverts the persona she created. She cracks through Rebecca’s facade as she loses grip on the situation and allows glimmers of fear and confusion to shine through honestly. Hathaway brilliantly plays with perception and reality, crafting another brilliant character in her arsenal.
7. The Princess Diaries (2001)
How could you make a list of Hathaway’s best performances and not include this one? The Princess Diaries was a true “a star is born” moment and, after revisiting it, it’s very clear to see why.
Despite the fact it’s her film debut, Hathaway holds her own against the legendary Julie Andrews. Her larger than life awkwardness counterbalances Andrews’ understated elegance beautifully. The film hinges on their paradoxical relationship relationship working and their magical chemistry yields impactful results.
But Hathaway’s success isn’t solely dependent on Andrews. Mia stands alone as a goofy and endearing character that breaks through the mold of what a “princess” can and should be. Hathaway nails the comedy of the character and embraces her inelegance while preserving the heart of the role that makes Mia relatable to an entire generation.
6. Colossal (2016)
Colossal, a criminally underseen entry in Hathaway’s filmography, is one of the most dynamic and committed performances in her career. Hathaway stars as an unemployed, alcoholic who accidentally manifests a Godzilla-esque monster in Seoul.
The darkly comedic tone allows Hathaway to oscillate between modes with surgical precision. She approaches Gloria’s darker struggles with empathy and care. However, Hathaway gleefully taps into the physical comedy that comes from Gloria and the monster’s connection.
Colossal is a strange little indie film, but Hathaway fully commits, never scoffing at its absurdity. Her earnestness is what makes her one of our best performers and it’s on full display here.
5. Brokeback Mountain (2005)
Her role as Lureen Newsome Twist marked Hathaway’s transition into more mature work and subverted expectations of what to expect from the young actress. Though she has far less screen time than her notable costars, she crafts an arc that is devastating and chilling.
Lureen’s initial confidence feels almost intoxicating and commanding. However, as the film persists, Hathaway reshapes Lureen into a colder presence. By the time Ennis (Heath Ledger) has his final phone call with her, she feels like a completely different character.
It’s jarring to see Hathaway, who up until that point had played much sunnier characters, deliver a performance that is so hardened. It’s also such a testament to her range. Brokeback Mountain is the moment where Anne Hathaway elevated herself to an actress to be reckoned with.
4. Les Misérables (2012)
With just fifteen minutes of screen time in a two-and-a-half hour film, Hathaway handily secured her first Oscar.
In order to bring the iconic role of Fantine to life, Hathaway underwent intense preparation which included losing twenty-five pounds, chopping off all her hair, and four months of vocal coaching. Her intense commitment to the role results in a performance that leaves an indelible mark despite the fact that it occurs quite early in the mammoth musical.
Hathaway actively avoids glamorizing the role and sings “I Dreamed a Dream” from the depths of her broken soul. There is zero vanity in this performance and the focus remained on the truth of Fantine’s plight. She takes a role steeped in history and completely reshapes it for generations to come.
3. The Odyssey (2026)
In a sea of talented titans operating at the height of their talents, Hathaway stands out as the performance to watch in Nolan’s latest outing. Penelope could’ve so easily become a flat caricature of a doting wife but Hathaway elevates the character in an intricate portrayal.
Her interpretation of Penelope is a fiery one. Not only does she grieve her missing husband and the potential end of this relationship, but she’s angry that she now has to allow her house to be taken over by raucous men who all treat her as a prize to be won. On top of that, the work she’s done holding down the throne in Odysseus’ absence is completely disregarded simply because she’s a woman.
The result is a thorny and devastating mixture of abandonment and anger coating a burning love fighting against extinguishment. Hathaway honors Penelope’s nuance and crafts one of the most captivating and complicated characters in the film.
2. Rachel Getting Married (2008)
Jonathan Demme’s indie darling brought Hathaway her first Oscar nomination and rightfully so. Her role as Kym, a young woman temporarily released from rehab to attend her sister’s wedding, gave Hathaway the heaviest material she’d tackled at that point in time.
Hathaway surrenders all ego around the performance, always performing something raw and real. She embraces Kym’s edges but, in doing so, somehow makes her all the more relatable. Kym is a ticking time bomb that fills you with anxiety, but she’s also incredibly familiar and accessible.
Hathaway doesn’t simply drench Kym in sorrow, though. She adds so much dimension to Kym by reveling in the joy as much as the sorrow. So much of the film and her performance resonate because they both hold space for both sides of the emotional spectrum and everything in between.
1. Mother Mary (2026)
It might feel premature to call a new release someone’s best performance, but Mother Mary features some of Hathaway’s most jaw-dropping work.
The film’s concert sequences are dazzling and hypnotic because Hathaway completely sells the Mother Mary persona at the center. She moves across the stage like the seasoned pro we’re supposed to believe she is and her vocals are, pardon the pun, heavenly.
She’s even better offstage, presenting a broken husk of a person that couldn’t feel farther away from the pop star we just saw effortlessly performing for thousands. Hathaway makes us feel the burden of the persona with clipped sentences and a fragile physicality.
Along with Michaela Coel, there’s a deep and rich history between the two women at the center of the film. Though we aren’t privy to the specifics of their relationship and subsequent falling out, we easily know and understand the magnitude of this reunion. Hathaway invests a richness in both her individual character and the central relationship for maximum impact.
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Adam Patla
Adam grew up less than 3 minutes away from a movie theater so he was always destined to love all things entertainment. He studied Broadcast & Cinematic Arts at Central Michigan University before working as a talent agent in the Chicago area until 2020. During lockdown he began discussing film and television on TikTok where he cultivated a platform of over 50,000 followers. He is currently a member of Chicago Indie Critics.