THE OSCARS — This is our favorite time of the year for movies. All of the previous year's best movies have been released and nominations for the big awards are announced.

The last big award ceremony is yet to come and all we can do now is debate who should win the Academy Awards and why. The one topic we seem to discuss most these days is who will win in all of the best actor categories.

We here at the KSL Movie Club definitely have our favorites for 2016, which got us thinking about years past and what we consider to be our all-time favorite Oscar-winning performances.

Here are four of our favorites. We’ll be chatting about each pick in more detail on the KSL Popcorn Report podcast throughout the month of February. We'd love for you to rewatch the movies (or watch them for the first time) and give us your feedback on each movie and the actor's performance, either in the comments or by tweeting us, @KSLPopReport.

Faith's pick: Cate Blanchett in "The Aviator"

Based on a true story, "The Aviator" depicts the early years of legendary director and aviator, Howard Hughes. Hughes dated actress Katharine Hepburn, who was played by Blanchett in the film. Blanchett ended up winning Best Supporting actress for her portrayal of the fast talking, independent Hepburn.

It was Blanchett's first Oscar win at the time, although she later went on to win Best Actress for her role in "Blue Jasmine" in 2014. It was also the first time an actor won an Oscar for portraying an Oscar-winning actor. Talk about Oscar "Inception."

Blanchett was uncanny in her role, perfectly mimicking Hepburn's New England accent and athletic walk. She also apparently took tennis and golf lessons for her role.

The movie was nominated for a total of 11 Oscars and ended up winning five.

Curt’s pick: Heath Ledger in “The Dark Knight”

I had to fight off John Clyde in an epic battle for this one. I still remember when they announced Heath Ledger would be playing the Joker in "The Dark Knight." I will be the first to admit, I was not a huge fan of the choice. Well, Ledger really proved me wrong.

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This to me is easily the best performance I have ever seen. I was mesmerized by it. I have never seen anyone steal the screen as much as he did with this performance, which is hard to do when you're acting opposite of Christian Bale.

In fact, I remember after the first time I saw "The Dark Knight," I didn't really remember much about Batman at all. When the Joker wasn't on the screen, I was like, "Where is the Joker? Get him back on the screen."

Ledger died before he could receive this Oscar, but his legacy as a gifted actor will always live on through this role.

John’s pick: Kevin Spacey in “The Usual Suspects”

I have endless respect for Curt's pick, but he called it first and my next pick is just as high up on my list as Heath Ledger.

I'm going with Kevin Spacey in "The Usual Suspects."

If you've never seen this amazing film, you should know that it likes its language and that's how it earned its R rating. But if that's something you can get around, then you're going to enjoy one of the greatest scripts ever written and a stunning performance from Spacey. I mean "stunning" in the most literal sense.

When the screen goes black and the credits roll, your jaw will be on the floor and you will forever remember what Spacey did on screen. You may know Spacey as President Underwood or Lester Burhnam, but once you see "The Usual Suspects," he will forever be Verbal Kint.

Everything from his delivery to his body language makes actors drool over what Spacey accomplished in this film. It's truly a performance that needs to be experienced.

David’s pick: Daniel Day-Lewis in “There Will Be Blood”

I guess it’s time to get this out of the way— “There Will Be Blood” is so far my all-time favorite movie ever (until I like something better). It was bound to come up sooner or later, so now is as good a time as any to tell you why.

I fell in love with this movie because it marks the exact moment I stopped seeing movies as merely a temporary escape from reality and started seeing them critically for the art form they are. The catalyst for the shift in my perspective was undeniably Daniel Day-Lewis’s portrayal of a fictitious character, “Daniel Plainview,” based on the real person Edward Doheny.

Day-Lewis plays a ruthless oil tycoon who has a competition in him so strong that he cannot be satisfied with simply winning— he has to ensure his competitors are destroyed. The level to which Day-Lewis goes to secure the essence of this character literally spills over into the performances of everyone around him.

Day-Lewis destroyed anyone who had the misfortune of going up against him. Paul Dano does his respectable best to hold his own as the pastor Eli, but Day-Lewis’ performance ultimately destroys Dano’s performance in the end. Poor kid.

“There Will Be Blood” is rated R for violence and gore.

What are your favorite Oscar-winning performances? Let us know in the comments.

Contributing: Faith Heaton Jolley, Curtis Linnell and John Clyde

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