Outlook’s Picks: 5 Outstanding Women-Led Performances Of 2025

As the year comes to a close, a noticeable shift has emerged: audiences are no longer treating female-centred narratives as niche, but as an essential standard for compelling performances. Occasionally, they even outpace their male counterparts in range and conviction. The previous years built an unmistakable foundation with films like Mrs (2023), Jigra (2024), and Laapataa Ladies (2023)—each following women negotiating hardships, social control and the slow work of recognising themselves in environments shaped by violence or constraint. 

This year, the shift has been more genre-driven, with women helming horror-thrillers, feminist dramas and even superhero narratives—signalling both creative risk and audience appetite. It’s a welcome change, even if overdue. With that spirit in mind, here are Outlook’s picks for five of the year’s strongest performances (listed without ranking), each contributing something distinct to the evolving imagination of women on screen.

Monika Panwar has been one of the year’s most assured performers. Since Jamtara (2020), her growth has been steady, but 2025 made it hard to sideline. As Madhu in Khauf (2025), she handled misogyny, the supernatural and female solidarity with a calm, incisive presence. She then shifted registers entirely as matriarch Manjari in Nishaanchi (2025) and Nishaanchi 2 (2025), playing a mother shaped by collective grief and steering her world with wit and authority. Few actors have moved between such tonal extremes with this much clarity. If 2025 belongs to any woman-led performer, it’s her.

Kalyani Priyadarshan’s success with Lokah Chapter 1: Chandra (2025) arrived as an unexpectedly welcome shift in how audiences and critics perceived her. The film casts her as a mythic superhero and a sharp-edged vampire navigating a landscape overrun by violence and moral decay and she carries the part with an ease that feels earned. Her performance balances ferocity with emotional clarity, allowing the character’s supernatural strength to coexist with moments of quiet vulnerability. What emerges on screen is not simply a costumed heroine, but an actor growing into a role that expands her range and deepens her appeal, making viewers root for her with genuine affection.

Tripti Dimri’s Vidhi in Dhadak 2 (2024) portrays the turmoil and courage involved in an inter-caste romance within a deeply patriarchal society. The film, while paying homage to its inspiration, introduces a more grounded realism, highlighting a love that persists against social constraints. Dimri’s portrayal gives Vidhi quiet strength and dignity. As the actor puts it: “There is so much to learn from Vidhi because she makes you feel empowered.”

Rashmika Mandanna’s Bhooma Devi, an English literature student still learning the vocabulary of love, is drawn into an affection she has never quite encountered. Her naivety is not framed as a flaw, but as a quality that is gradually appropriated by Vikram (Dheekshith Shetty), whose actions unsettle her sense of self and unwittingly set the stage for her eventual reclamation. The film positions Mandanna in deliberate contrast to the hyper-masculine arcs popularised by Animal (2023) and Kabir Singh (2019), the kind of films she’s herself worked in, opting instead for a narrative rooted in emotional accountability and personal restoration—a welcome shift that brings grounded journeys back into the mainstream.

Bad Girl features Anjali Sivaraman as Ramya—a deeply imaginative girl with rebellious roots. Her world is defined by the angst to seek freedom and romantic love amidst all of the chaos of growing up. Sivaraman’s intuitive, expressive and vibrant performance gives the film its absolute soul, as she navigates the vulnerability of desire, heartbreak, healing and rebuilding, through the years. The film remains memorable also for her contributions to the ephemeral music of the film, making her stand out as one of the best of the year.