Performer
A performer whose catalogue work here is strong, with the fuller case still to be made.
Nutevio rank
#5740
of 909177 performers
Top 1%
Neil Sandilands works on versatility rather than volume, and the catalogue keeps proving that the quieter choice was the correct one.
The essay
Our editors on the work, the patterns and the reason this body of work holds together.
Neil Sandilands appears in 11 films in the Nutevio catalogue, and none of them would work the same way without Neil. Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes is the clearest case: a film rated 7.1 by our editors, where the performance carries weight the script only implies.
The recognisable elements are versatility, transformation, quiet performance. Watch two of these films back to back and the method separates from the material — the same instrument, tuned differently for horror, drama, action. It is a style built on what is withheld as much as what is played.
Working with Julia Max, Joel Soisson, Wes Ball and others, Neil Sandilands helped set a standard other performers now audition against. Awards bodies have been slower than the work, which is usually the sign of a career built on choices rather than campaigns.
Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes (2024) as Koro · News of the World (2020) as Wilhelm Leonberger · London Calling (2025) as Alistair Mcrory
Career snapshot
Ranked #5740 of 909177 performers tracked in the Nutevio library.
Films in Nutevio
11
2015–2025
Career length
10 yrs
Measured across our catalogue
Academy Awards
—
Unknown
Oscar nominations
—
Unknown
Highest Nutevio score
7.1
Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes
Average Nutevio score
4.7
Across catalogue work
Highest IMDb rating
7.1
Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes
Most frequent director
Julia Max
1 film together
Longest collaboration
1×
With Julia Max
Most common genre
Drama
4 titles
Average runtime
1h 45m
Across catalogue work
Golden Globe wins
—
Unknown
Nutevio metric
Ten weighted categories, applied identically to everyone we cover.
Nutevio Performer Score
6.8
out of 10
A performer whose catalogue work here is strong, with the fuller case still to be made.
Nutevio metric
Cultural impact and legacy, measured separately from craft — how far the work travelled once it left the cinema.
Nutevio Influence Score
6.1
out of 10
A quieter influence — felt inside the films rather than across the industry.
How far the work travelled past the people who saw it first.
What survives once the release-week conversation has burned off.
Institutional acknowledgement, weighted but never decisive.
Years of chosen, relevant work rather than years merely employed.
Statuettes, read as evidence rather than verdict.
Roles named without needing the film named alongside them.
Directors who wrote parts because this performer existed.
The reading other performers now have to answer.
Actor DNA
A fingerprint derived from the roles themselves — register, range and the kind of film they carry.
The shape of a career
Every performance plotted in time. Hover a point to read the title behind it.
Peak years
Where the scores, the awards and the sheer volume of work agree with each other.
Best decade
2010s
5.1 average MV
The 2010s are where the work and the material meet. Coyote Lake, The Drone, Blackhat — the run our editors reach for first when the argument is about range rather than fame.
Highest average Nutevio score
2010s
5.1
Across 3 catalogue films in this decade, our scores never drop below the level a career is judged on.
Highest average IMDb rating
2010s
5.1
The public agrees most strongly about this stretch — useful context, and occasionally a decade behind our own reading.
Most awarded era
2010s
0 Academy Awards
Statuettes for the films themselves, which is the honest way to read an ensemble career. Coyote Lake, The Drone, Blackhat.
Most productive era
2020s
8 films
The busiest stretch of the catalogue — volume that reads as appetite rather than availability.
Range, mapped
Genres down the side, decades across the top. Warmer cells mean stronger titles.
| Genre | 2010s | 2020s |
|---|---|---|
| Drama | 6.01 film | 4.23 films |
| Action | 5.51 film | 6.63 films |
| Thriller | 5.82 films | 6.21 film |
| Comedy | 3.81 film | 6.51 film |
| Crime | 5.51 film | 6.32 films |
| Horror | 3.81 film | 5.71 film |
Chronology
Firsts and peaks
The turning points, in the order they happened.
First film in Nutevio
2015Blackhat
Where our catalogue meets this career, as Harbor Pilot (uncredited).
Highest rated performance · Career peak
2024Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes
7.1 on the Nutevio scale, the top of the catalogue for this performer. Weighing billing against the film's own quality, this is the point where everything aligned at once.
Most recent film
2025Wetiko
The current state of the argument, as Zake Zezo.
Our order
Every performance in the catalogue, ordered by Nutevio Score.
Every title
Filter by genre or decade, and compare any two titles side by side.
11 of 11 films
as Koro
Directed by Wes Ball
as Wilhelm Leonberger
Directed by Paul Greengrass
as The Man
Directed by Julia Max
as Alistair Mcrory
Directed by Unknown
as Mr. Kloppers
Directed by Joel Soisson
From the library
Every movie and TV credit stored for this name in the Nutevio catalogue — filter by media, role or sort by rating.
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The defining work
#1
Koro
Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes (2024)
Performance score7.0
The performance the rest of the career is read through. Koro gives Neil Sandilands a structure to work against, and the film hands over its centre of gravity without hesitation.
View movie#2
Wilhelm Leonberger
News of the World (2020)
Performance score6.8
News of the World asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Wilhelm Leonberger is played without a single line of pleading for the audience's sympathy — which is exactly why it lands.
View movie#3
The Man
The Surrender (2025)
Performance score6.5
The Surrender asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. The Man is played without a single line of pleading for the audience's sympathy — which is exactly why it lands.
View movie#4
Alistair Mcrory
London Calling (2025)
Performance score6.5
London Calling asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Alistair Mcrory is played without a single line of pleading for the audience's sympathy — which is exactly why it lands.
View movieStart here
A guided path through the work, ordered so each film explains the next.
Best entry point
as Koro
Start here. Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes is the clearest statement of what Neil Sandilands does — accessible, 145 minutes, and rated 7.1 by our editors. No context required.
Our editors order this path by accessibility first and chronology second. You meet Neil at the most legible performance, then move forward in time so each film reads as a response to the one before it rather than a repetition of it.
News of the World (2020)
Keeps the adventure register of Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes but asks for a colder reading of it.
The Surrender (2025)
Keeps the drama register of News of the World but asks for a colder reading of it.
London Calling (2025)
A deliberate change of key after The Surrender — same instrument, unfamiliar tuning, and the reason range gets mentioned.
Bird Boy (2025)
A deliberate change of key after London Calling — same instrument, unfamiliar tuning, and the reason range gets mentioned.
Company kept
The directors and performers this career keeps returning to.
Michael Mann
Director
1 film together
Notably Blackhat
Sara Seligman
Director
1 film together
Notably Coyote Lake
Paul Greengrass
Director
1 film together
Notably News of the World
Wes Ball
Director
1 film together
Notably Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes
Joel Soisson
Director
1 film together
Notably Bird Boy
Julia Max
Director
1 film together
Notably The Surrender
Behind the camera
Who casts this performer, how often, and what the pairing produces.
Wes Ball
Director
1 film together · 7.1 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Kingdom of the Planet of the ApesPaul Greengrass
Director
1 film together · 6.9 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
News of the WorldSara Seligman
Director
1 film together · 6.0 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Coyote LakeJulia Max
Director
1 film together · 5.7 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
The SurrenderMichael Mann
Director
1 film together · 5.5 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
BlackhatJoel Soisson
Director
1 film together · 0.0 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Bird BoySix degrees
Follow the thread outward — director, film, co-star, and the film after that.
Categories of our own
Six editorial categories we apply to every performer we cover.
Most rewatchable
Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes
as Koro
The one that survives a fourth viewing. Nothing in the performance depends on surprise, which is why it keeps paying out.
Most emotional performance
Coyote Lake
as Dirk
Grief played at conversational volume. The film never asks the audience to cry; the performance simply makes it difficult not to.
Most influential performance
Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes
as Koro
You can hear this reading in other actors' auditions a decade later — the surest measure of influence there is.
Best ensemble performance
Blackhat
as Harbor Pilot (uncredited)
Work that makes everyone else in the frame better without ever pulling the camera towards itself.
Career defining performance
Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes
as Koro
If the career had to be argued in a single scene, our editors would pick one from this film and rest the case.
In their films' words
“You can build a whole film around a performer who knows when not to speak. Neil Sandilands has known it for a long time.”
Head to head
Put two careers on the same scale and see where the argument actually sits.
Ours alone
Recognitions handed out by this desk, on criteria no awards body uses.
Modern Classic Performer
Awarded
Defining performances delivered inside the last twenty-five years, in films already being taught rather than merely remembered.
Drama Legend
Awarded
4 catalogue titles in drama, each one a reference point for the films that followed.
Our desk
Best ending, best opening, best twist and the rest — categories we apply to everyone we cover.
Best ending
Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes
as Koro
The last five minutes reorganise everything before them, and hold up when you already know what's coming.
Best opening
Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes
as Koro
A first sequence that states the rules of the film without explaining a single one of them.
Most emotional
Bird Boy
as Mr. Kloppers
The film where the technique steps aside and lets the feeling arrive undefended.
Best twist
Eraser: Reborn
as Jan Swart
A reversal earned by information the film gave you and trusted you to misread.
Best visual achievement
Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes
as Koro
Images that would survive with the sound switched off.
Best action sequence
Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes
as Koro
Geography, stakes and consequence held in the same frame — spectacle you can follow.
Best dialogue
News of the World
as Wilhelm Leonberger
Lines written to be spoken, staged so the pauses do half the work.
Most underrated film
The Drone
as The Violator
The public vote sits below ours on this one, and the direction is the reason for the gap.
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Built a career in the same territory: adventure and drama
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Tom Hanks
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Have your say
Community
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Reference
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