There’s something deliciously delirious about Oscar season. It seems to coincide with the chaos that always begins right around Black Friday. The frenzy that ensues when crazy consumers head to the department stores and ‘Buffs like us head to the cinemas to devour the best end of year movies we can.

These last two months of the year can make it easy to forget the fantastic performances we’ve already seen the other 10 months.  Sitting around the office, we came up with five performances we loved this year.  Whether we saw them in January or November, we hope good things come the way of these actors (even if its not an Oscar).

So what do you think? Have Goodman (in the clip here and in The Artist) and Dunst jumpstarted—or rebooted—their careers? Or are you waiting for the holidays to kick in before you set your list of the greatest performances of the year in stone?