Meryl Streep's 10 best films - actresses with 21 Oscar nominations (11 photos)

Choosing the 10 best Meryl Streep films is an impossible task! The American actress and today's birthday girl has consistently appeared in a new project almost every year since 1977, be it a TV series or a feature film.





See for yourself, in the actress’s filmography there were no new roles recorded only in 1980, 2000 and 2022. In the rest, something came out, and sometimes several at once! Even in 2023, she has already appeared in the series “Extrapolations.”

It is not surprising that Meryl has 21 Oscar nominations - a world record among actors and actresses. Her closest pursuers, Katharine Hepburn and Jack Nicholson, have 12 nominations each. By the way, Meryl Streep has only three Oscar wins (Katherine Hepburn has four), but at the same time, Streep can easily continue to act in films for another ten years.

Of course, it’s not about the awards, but about Meryl’s roles, of which she has a lot. Let's try to highlight the ten best films of one of the most successful and prolific actresses of all time, taking into account audience ratings and critics' reviews.

The Devil Wears Prada (2006)



Meryl plays the role of the stern Miranda Priestly, editor-in-chief of the fashion magazine Runway. The actress admitted that she borrowed her character’s speaking style from Clint Eastwood.

Bridges of Madison County (1995)





And this is where Meryl Streep met Eastwood. Her character Francesca Johnson meets traveling photographer Robert Kincaid while her husband and children are away. Many years later, Francesca's son and daughter learn from her diary that the best four days of her life happened then.

Kramer vs. Kramer (1979)



One fine day, Joanna Kramer decides to leave careerist Ted Kramer, leaving her and her son alone. This was not part of the man’s plans, but he finds a common language with the child and generally turns out to be a first-class father. But a few months later, Joanna returns. And he wants to take the child for himself.

Julie and Julia: Recipe for Happiness (2009)



An aspiring writer starts a blog with the goal of cooking 524 dishes from famous TV personality Julia Child's cookbook. In parallel, we are shown the life of Julia herself in the post-war decades, and we see how unexpectedly similar the lives of two women from different eras are.

Sophie's Choice (1982)



Sophie Zawistowski is a Polish woman who survived the Nazi camp and now lives in America in the post-war years. She has a specific relationship with her current lover Nathan, to whom she does not tell the most terrible secrets of her past. However, she shares them with a neighbor named Stingo who befriends them - and there really is something to tell.

Clock (2002)



The film depicts a day in the lives of three different women: writer Virginia Woolf in 1923, housewife Laura Brown in 1951, and publishing editor Clarissa Vaughn in 2001. Meryl Streep plays the latter. The film, like “Julie and Julia,” shows the similarity of different heroines who are unfamiliar with each other.

The Deer Hunter (1978)



Michael Cimino's drama explores the horrors of the Vietnam War and its aftermath through the experiences of three friends who lived through it and their loved ones.

Doubt (2008)



Once again, Meryl Streep's character is forced to make a choice. She is the director of a Catholic school, and one of the priests who appears to be corrupting the students falls under her suspicion. It is unclear what to do in such a situation, because within their church organization, closed from the whole world, such issues are not easily resolved.

Adaptation (2002)



The film's screenwriter, Charlie Kaufman, in writer's block, literally starts writing about how he's writing a screenplay based on a book by Susan Orlean (who also appears and is played by Meryl Streep) called The Orchid Thief. Kaufman and his fictional twin brother are played by Nicolas Cage, and the film itself has a plot that is surprising in its innovation.

Don't Look Up (2021)



Meryl Streep is the President of the United States! It’s just that she occupies such a position not in the best of times. A comet is approaching the Earth, which will most likely destroy all life on it, which, of course, prevents Streep’s heroine from conducting her political affairs in the name of benefiting her own career.

What other Meryl Streep roles do you like? Maybe her small appearance in the movie Manhattan? Or an Oscar-winning role in The Iron Lady? Write!