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Viola Davis · Filmography Ranked

Best Viola Davis Films, Ranked by IQ Score

Two decades of cinema's most-canonical Black-lead-actress catalog. Every Viola Davis film, ranked.

Viola Davis's filmography is the most-canonical post-2008 Black-lead-actress catalog. EGOT winner, Emmy (How to Get Away with Murder, 2015), Grammy (audiobook), Oscar (Fences, 2016), Tony (Fences stage 2010). Among the most-decorated performers in screen-acting history.

Anchor picks: Fences (2016), Best Supporting Actress Oscar. Ma Rainey's Black Bottom (2020). Doubt (2008).

6 titles · ranked by IQ Score

  1. 1
    Ma Rainey's Black Bottom poster, IQ Score 166/200, Masterclass tier

    Ma Rainey's Black Bottom

    Masterclass drama, music

    George C. Wolfe's 2020 August Wilson adaptation anchored by Viola Davis's Oscar-nominated performance as 1920s blues singer Ma Rainey and Chadwick Boseman's final film performance. The structural commitment to letting Wi…

    166/200
  2. 2
    Doubt poster, IQ Score 164/200, Masterclass tier

    Doubt

    Masterclass drama

    John Patrick Shanley's 2008 self-adaptation of his Pulitzer-winning play anchored by Meryl Streep and Philip Seymour Hoffman as a 1964 Bronx Catholic school principal accusing a young priest of child abuse. The structura…

    164/200
  3. 3
    Fences poster, IQ Score 160/200, Masterclass tier

    Fences

    Masterclass drama

    2016 Best Picture nominee and Best Actor nominee (Denzel Washington). August Wilson's Pulitzer-winning play about a Black garbage collector and former baseball player in 1950s Pittsburgh. High cognitive demands from the…

    160/200
  4. 4
    Widows poster, IQ Score 160/200, Masterclass tier

    Widows

    Masterclass thriller, drama, heist

    Steve McQueen's 2018 heist-thriller adapted from Lynda La Plante's 1983 ITV series. Viola Davis anchors the cast (Michelle Rodriguez, Elizabeth Debicki, Cynthia Erivo) as widows of dead Chicago criminals who must complet…

    160/200
  5. 5
    The Help poster, IQ Score 140/200, Stimulating tier

    The Help

    Stimulating drama, historical

    2011 Best Picture nominee and Best Actress nominee. Black domestic workers in 1960s Mississippi tell their stories to a white journalist. Moderate cognitive demands. Educational value from the civil rights era setting, t…

    140/200
  6. 6
    How to Get Away with Murder poster, IQ Score 137/200, Stimulating tier

    How to Get Away with Murder

    Stimulating crime, thriller

    Peter Nowalk's Shondaland legal thriller anchored by Viola Davis as criminal-defense professor Annalise Keating. The structural commitment, that the show's first season is built around a flash-forward of the central murd…

    137/200
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Questions about this ranking

What is the best Viola Davis film?

By IQ Score on TV Intelligentsia, Fences (2016), Ma Rainey's Black Bottom (2020), and Doubt (2008) anchor the catalog. Widows (2018) is the Steve McQueen heist-thriller anchored by her ensemble lead.

Why is Viola Davis EGOT-tier?

Davis has Emmy, Grammy, Oscar, and Tony wins, one of only a handful of EGOT performers in screen-acting history.

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