Satellite Award for Best Actor – Motion Picture Drama

The Satellite Award for Best Actor in a Motion Picture Drama is an annual award given by the International Press Academy as one of its Satellite Awards.

Winners and nominees

1990s

1996: Geoffrey Rush – Shine as David Helfgott
1996: James Woods – Killer: A Journal of Murder as Carl Panzram

• Christopher Eccleston – Jude as Jude Fawley
• Ralph Fiennes – The English Patient as Laszlo de Almásy
• William H. Macy – Fargo as Jerome Lundegaard
• Billy Bob Thornton – Sling Blade as Karl Childers

1997: Robert Duvall – The Apostle as Euliss Dewey/The Apostle

• Russell Crowe – L.A. Confidential as Bud White
• Matt Damon – Good Will Hunting as Will Hunting
• Leonardo DiCaprio – Titanic as Jack Dawson
• Djimon Hounsou – Amistad as Cinque
• Mark Wahlberg – Boogie Nights as Eddie Adams/Dirk Diggler

1998: Edward Norton – American History X as Derek Vinyard

• Stephen Fry – Wilde as Oscar Wilde
• Brendan Gleeson – The General as Martin Cahill
• Derek Jacobi – Love Is the Devil: Study for a Portrait of Francis Bacon as Francis Bacon
• Ian McKellen – Gods and Monsters as James Whale
• Nick Nolte – Affliction as Wade Whitehouse

1999: Terence Stamp – The Limey as Wilson

• Russell Crowe – The Insider as Jeffrey Wigand
• Richard Farnsworth – The Straight Story as Alvin Straight
• Al Pacino – The Insider as Lowell Bergman
• Kevin Spacey – American Beauty as Lester Burnham
• Denzel Washington – The Hurricane as Rubin Carter

2000s

2000: Geoffrey Rush – Quills as Marquis de Sade

• Jamie Bell – Billy Elliot as Billy Elliot
• Sean Connery – Finding Forrester as William Forrester
• Russell Crowe – Gladiator as Maximus Decimus Meridius
• Ed Harris – Pollock as Jackson Pollock
• Denzel Washington – Remember the Titans as Herman Boone

2001: Brian Cox – L.I.E. as Big John Harrigan

• Russell Crowe – A Beautiful Mind as John Nash
• Guy Pearce – Memento as Leonard
• Sean Penn – I Am Sam as Sam Dawson
• Billy Bob Thornton – Monster's Ball as Hank Grotowski
• Denzel Washington – Training Day as Alonzo

2002: Michael Caine – The Quiet American as Thomas Fowler
2002: Daniel Day-Lewis – Gangs of New York as William Cutting

• Tom Hanks – Road to Perdition as Michael Sullivan
• Jack Nicholson – About Schmidt as Warren Schmidt
• Edward Norton – 25th Hour as Monty Brogan
• Robin Williams – One Hour Photo as Seymour Parrish

2003: Sean Penn – 21 Grams as Paul Rivers and Mystic River as Jimmy Markum

• Hayden Christensen – Shattered Glass as Stephen Glass
• Paddy Considine – In America as Johnny
• Tom Cruise – The Last Samurai as Nathan Algren
• Jude Law – Cold Mountain as Inman
• William H. Macy – The Cooler as Bernie Lootz

2004: Don Cheadle – Hotel Rwanda as Paul Rusesabagina

• Kevin Bacon – The Woodsman as Walter
• Javier Bardem – The Sea Inside (Mar adentro) as Ramón Sampedro
• Johnny Depp – Finding Neverland as Sir James Matthew Barrie
• Gael García Bernal – The Motorcycle Diaries (Diarios de motocicleta) as Ernesto Guevara de la Serna
• Liam Neeson – Kinsey as Alfred Kinsey

2005: Philip Seymour Hoffman – Capote as Truman Capote

• Jake Gyllenhaal – Jarhead as Anthony Swofford
• Heath Ledger – Brokeback Mountain as Ennis del Mar
• Tommy Lee Jones – The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada as Pete Perkins
• Viggo Mortensen – A History of Violence as Tom Stall/Joey Cusack
• David Strathairn – Good Night, and Good Luck. as Edward R. Murrow

2006: Forest Whitaker – The Last King of Scotland as Idi Amin

• Leonardo DiCaprio – Blood Diamond as Danny Archer
• Ryan Gosling – Half Nelson as Dan Dunne
• Joshua Jackson – Aurora Borealis as Duncan
• Derek Luke – Catch a Fire as Patrick Chamusso
• Patrick Wilson – Little Children as Brad Adamson

2007: Viggo Mortensen – Eastern Promises as Nikolai Luzhin

• Josh Brolin – No Country for Old Men as Llewelyn Moss
• Christian Bale – Rescue Dawn as Dieter
• Tommy Lee Jones – In the Valley of Elah as Hank Deerfield
• Frank Langella – Starting Out in the Evening as Leonard Schiller
• Denzel Washington – American Gangster as Frank Lucas

2008: Richard Jenkins – The Visitor as Walter Vale

• Leonardo DiCaprio – Revolutionary Road as Frank Wheeler
• Frank Langella – Frost/Nixon as Richard Nixon
• Sean Penn – Milk as Harvey Milk
• Mickey Rourke – The Wrestler as Randy Robinson
• Mark Ruffalo – What Doesn't Kill You as Brian

2009: TBD

• Jeff Bridges – Crazy Heart as Bad Blake
• Hugh Dancy – Adam as Adam Raki
• Johnny Depp – Public Enemies as John Dillinger
• Colin Firth – A Single Man as George Falconer
• Jeremy Renner – The Hurt Locker as Sergeant First Class William James
• Michael Sheen – The Damned United as Brian Clough