Saoirse Ronan may only be 27 years old, but the Irish actress has already become a Hollywood heavy hitter since making her film debut in 2007 with four different films, including Atonement. For her supporting role in Atonement, the then 13-year-old Ronan received the first Academy Award nomination of her career.
Since then, she's earned three more Oscar nominations and has starred in some fantastic films. She's also forged a strong creative partnership with actress-turned-director Greta Gerwig, the two working together for both Lady Bird and Little Women. But what are the actress's best films, according to Letterboxd, a social media platform made for movie fans?
Byzantium (2012) - 3.25
In Neil Jordan's 2012 fantasy thriller Byzantium, a mother-daughter vampire duo is forced to hide at the rundown Byzantium Hotel as other vampires hunt them down for violating the vampiric code. Ronan plays Eleanor Webb, the teenage vampire who was originally born in 1804, and Gemma Arterton, most recently seen as Polly in The King's Man, plays Eleanor's mother, Clara.
Eleanor has begun writing down her life story, tossing each finished page to the wind to scatter her existence. She falls in love with Frank, a young waiter who is dying of leukemia, and hopes to turn him into a vampire. When the vampires finally find Clara and Eleanor, the two must fight together to live the lives they desire.
Hanna (2011) - 3.35
In Hanna, Ronan takes on the title role, a teenage girl raised by her father to be the perfect assassin since the age of 2. After her father sends her on missions throughout Europe, Cate Blanchett's ruthless CIA agent Marissa Wiegler begins pursuing Hanna. Marissa is tasked with tracking down and eliminating Hanna and her ex-CIA operative father, Erik Heller.
Her second film directed by Joe Wright, Hanna is the intense and unexpected action thriller found in both their filmographies. Hanna has since been adapted into a popular Amazon Prime series of the same name, now heading into its fourth season.
The Way Back (2010) - 3.37
Alongside Ed Harris, Colin Farrell and Jim Sturgess, Ronan stars in Peter Weir's 2011 film The Way Back. Inspired by the true story of Sławomir Rawicz, a Polish prisoner of war, this survival story centers around a group of Siberian gulag prisoners during World War II. When they escape, the group must face the elements as they trek their way home.
Ronan plays Irena, a young Polish girl who claims her parents were murdered by Russian soldiers. She escaped the communal farm the soldiers sent her to because of their cruel treatment and joins the remaining men on their journey. As the complex Irena, the teenaged Ronan holds her own alongside The Way Back's talented ensemble.
Brooklyn (2015) - 3.76
For her leading role in the historical romance Brooklyn, Ronan received her first Academy Award for Best Actress nomination. Based on the Colm Tóibín novel, Brooklyn tells the story of Eilis Lacey, an Irish immigrant who arrives in New York seeking employment. She meets and later secretly marries an Italian-American plumber named Tony, but is forced to return home after her sister's sudden death.
While back in Ireland, Eilis takes on her sister's bookkeeping job and gets set up with local bachelor Jim Farrell. As time goes on, Eilis must choose between her two different lives separated by the Atlantic Ocean. She ultimately returns to New York, embracing Tony once she chooses Brooklyn for good. Along with Ronan's Best Actress nomination, Brooklyn was nominated for Best Picture and Best Adapted Screenplay at the 2016 Academy Awards.
The French Dispatch (2021) - 3.84
Ronan's screentime in Wes Anderson's The French Dispatch, the pastel-loving auteur's newest film, may be short, but it's still pretty memorable. In the film's third story, The Private Dining Room of the Police Commissioner, she plays the unnamed Showgirl #1 who's one of the best-dressed characters in The French Dispatch. Along with a ragtag group of criminals, she kidnaps the police commissioner's son.
But Ronan's Showgirl #1 shows a slightly softer side than the rest of her criminal compadres, serenading Gabriel Ryan's Gigi through a locked door when the boy asks for a lullaby. While not as meaty as her role in The Grand Budapest Hotel, another Anderson film, Ronan makes the most of her brief appearance in The French Dispatch.
Loving Vincent (2017) - 3.90
In this unconventional biopic about Vincent van Gogh, Ronan plays Marguerite Gachet, a French woman who was the subject of two van Gogh paintings. Loving Vincent is an experimental animated film, the film's 65,000 frames done as oil paintings on canvas instead of the more traditional hand-drawn or computer animation.
Loving Vincent's beautifully unique aesthetic, inspired by the work of van Gogh, used a form of rotoscoping. The oil-painted frames were created by 125 artists painting on top of footage of the actors. The film took 6 years to complete and would be nominated for Best Animated Feature at the 90th Academy Awards.
Lady Bird (2017) - 3.91
As the titular Christine "Lady Bird" McPherson, an angsty teen whose tumultuous relationship with her overcontrolling mother drives much of the film's conflict, Ronan steals the show in Greta Gerwig's fantastic coming-of-age film Lady Bird. A slice-of-life story, Lady Bird documents Lady Bird's senior year of high school in 2002 as she tries to juggle finding herself with the struggles of growing up.
Ronan received critical acclaim for Lady Bird, earning the third Academy Award nomination of her career—the second for Best Actress. Her first collaboration with Gerwig and fellow actor Timothée Chalamet, Lady Bird is the film most people associate with Ronan, and it's become one of the best in her growing filmography.
Atonement (2007) - 3.93
For her turn as the troublesome, if not downright evil, Briony Tallis in Joe Wright's Atonement, Ronan earned her first Academy Award nomination—her only one in the Best Supporting Actress category so far. Based on the Ian McEwan novel, Atonement is a romantic drama that follows the story of a false incrimination and its consequences over 60 years, beginning near the start of World War II.
After Briony falsely accuses her sister's childhood friend Robbie Turner of assaulting their cousin, he's sent to jail. As years go on, her guilt begins eating away at her and Briony tries to right her wrongs, but it's too late. The young Ronan held her own in scenes with more seasoned actors like Keira Knightley and James McAvoy and became one of the youngest Best Supporting Actress nominees in Oscar history. It's no surprise Atonement is critically considered one of her best films.
Little Women (2019) - 4.17
Ronan earned the fourth Academy Award nomination of her career for her fiery portrayal of Jo March in Greta Gerwig's Little Women. The seventh film adaption of Louisa May Alcott's beloved Civil War-era novel, Gerwig's take on Little Women uses a non-linear timeline to explore the lives of the four March sisters more evenly than past films, which tend to focus mostly on Jo.
Gerwig's ability to strike a balance between these four characters and make them all hold importance within the story while still making each their own woman is a great accomplishment. Ronan is at her career-best as Jo, her tearful speech in the family home's attic after turning down Laurie's marriage proposal one of the film's most moving scenes.
The Grand Budapest Hotel (2014) - 4.20
Wes Anderson's The Grand Budapest Hotel marks the first time Ronan worked with the auteur, the ensemble dramedy revered as the best film in her filmography by fans on Letterboxd. It centers around two staff members of the fictional Grand Budapest Hotel and their adventures after Monsieur Gustave H., the hotel's famed concierge, is framed for murder.
In The Grand Budapest Hotel, Ronan plays Agatha, an apprentice baker at Mendl's who becomes the apple of lobby boy Zero's eye. With a birthmark in the shape of Mexico on her cheek and enough flour covering her to bake a cake, Agatha is one of Ronan's quirkier characters and feels right at home in Anderson's pastel dream of a film.