It’s the end of the year which means looking back at the 2024 movie calendar and deciding just what the best movies of the year really were. Many critics organizations and other entities have been announcing the standard awards, like Best Picture, Best Actress, and Best Director. However, one critics organization has an award for Villain of the Year and it’s been given, fittingly, to Chris Hemsworth.
Hemsworth may be better known as the superhero Thor to most audiences. But in 2024, he played the Villain of the Year, at least according to the Seattle Film Critics Society. He won the award for his role of Dementus in Furiosa: A Max Max Saga, and while the actor may be taking issue with the word “villain,” he’s otherwise thanking the SFCS for the recognition on Instagram:
I didn’t know that “Best Villain” was an award that was given out anywhere other than the MTV Movie Awards, but honestly, awards like this should be more common. If nothing else, it’s a way to recognize more types of acting performances than just picking a lead actor and/or actress and calling them the best of them all. Many performances are so different that even trying to compare them is impossible.
Of course, knowing that there’s a Villain of the Year award might lead you to assume there’s also a Hero of the Year award but apparently, that’s not the case. I guess only the bad guys are worthy of special recognition.
Honestly, this is great to see. While Furiosa might not have been quite the groundbreaking movie that Mad Max: Fury Road was, it was still a really good film and one of my favorite science fiction movies of 2024. A big part of the reason for that was the performance Chris Hemsworth gave as Dementus, a warlord who can’t decide what nickname he should go by, but is as dangerous as he is inept as a leader.
There are certainly a few other great villains from movies in 2024. Austin Butler as Feyd-Rautha Harkonnen in Dune: Part Two comes to mind. However, he’s ultimately a small part of a massive movie and certainly doesn’t have the screen time that Hemsworth does. I might also consider Denzel Washington’s Golden Globe nomination-worthy performance as Macrinus in Gladiator II. Still, Dementus is a great choice.
Hemsworth called playing Dementus “refreshing,” and he said he had fun playing the role after regularly being cast as the hero. He had been talking to George Miller about the role for years before production got underway. It seems the two of them dialed on not just what sort of character Dementus would be, but what sort of character he would have to be to not simply survive, but thrive as a leader in the wasteland.
If nothing else, this hopefully makes all the time Chris Hemsworth spent doing makeup worth it. If you want to watch the Villain of the Year performance in Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga, it’s available now with a Max subscription.