Performer
A performer whose catalogue work here is strong, with the fuller case still to be made.
Nutevio rank
#17955
of 909177 performers
Top 5%
Sian Clifford 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.
Sian Clifford appears in 9 films in the Nutevio catalogue, and none of them would work the same way without Sian. Young Woman and the Sea is the clearest case: a film rated 7.4 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 music, drama, thriller. It is a style built on what is withheld as much as what is played.
Working with David Lowery, James Griffiths, Joachim Rønning and others, Sian Clifford 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.
Young Woman and the Sea (2024) as Charlotte 'Eppy' Epstein · The Ballad of Wallis Island (2025) as Amanda · The Duke (2021) as Dr. Unsworth
Career snapshot
Ranked #17955 of 909177 performers tracked in the Nutevio library.
Films in Nutevio
9
2020–2026
Career length
6 yrs
Measured across our catalogue
Academy Awards
—
Unknown
Oscar nominations
—
Unknown
Highest Nutevio score
7.4
Young Woman and the Sea
Average Nutevio score
5.8
Across catalogue work
Highest IMDb rating
7.9
Young Woman and the Sea
Most frequent director
David Lowery
1 film together
Longest collaboration
1×
With David Lowery
Most common genre
Comedy
6 titles
Average runtime
1h 42m
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
2020s
5.8 average MV
The 2020s are where the work and the material meet. Mother Mary, Lady, The Ballad of Wallis Island — the run our editors reach for first when the argument is about range rather than fame.
Highest average Nutevio score
2020s
5.8
Across 9 catalogue films in this decade, our scores never drop below the level a career is judged on.
Highest average IMDb rating
2020s
5.8
The public agrees most strongly about this stretch — useful context, and occasionally a decade behind our own reading.
Most awarded era
2020s
0 Academy Awards
Statuettes for the films themselves, which is the honest way to read an ensemble career. Mother Mary, Lady, The Ballad of Wallis Island.
Most productive era
2020s
9 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 | 2020s |
|---|---|
| Drama | 6.75 films |
| Thriller | 5.32 films |
| Comedy | 5.46 films |
| Crime | 5.72 films |
Chronology
Firsts and peaks
The turning points, in the order they happened.
First film in Nutevio
2020A Serial Killer's Guide to Life
Where our catalogue meets this career, as Rebirthing Cynthia.
Highest rated performance
7.4 on the Nutevio scale, the top of the catalogue for this performer.
Career peak
2025The Ballad of Wallis Island
Weighing billing against the film's own quality, this is the point where everything aligned at once.
Most recent film
2026Lady
The current state of the argument, as Lady Isabella.
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.
9 of 9 films
as Amanda
Directed by James Griffiths
as Charlotte 'Eppy' Epstein
Directed by Joachim Rønning
as Gloria Matienne (voice)
Directed by Unknown
as Dr. Unsworth
Directed by Roger Michell
as Madame de Genlis
Directed by Stephen Williams
From the library
Every movie and TV credit stored for this name in the Nutevio catalogue — filter by media, role or sort by rating.
Loading credits…
The defining work
#1
Amanda
The Ballad of Wallis Island (2025)
Performance score7.4
The performance the rest of the career is read through. Amanda gives Sian Clifford a structure to work against, and the film hands over its centre of gravity without hesitation.
View movie#2
Charlotte 'Eppy' Epstein
Young Woman and the Sea (2024)
Performance score7.2
Young Woman and the Sea asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Charlotte 'Eppy' Epstein is played without a single line of pleading for the audience's sympathy — which is exactly why it lands.
View movie#3
Gloria Matienne (voice)
The Magician's Elephant (2023)
Performance score7.0
The Magician's Elephant asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Gloria Matienne (voice) is played without a single line of pleading for the audience's sympathy — which is exactly why it lands.
View movie#4
Dr. Unsworth
The Duke (2021)
Performance score6.9
The Duke asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Dr. Unsworth 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 Amanda
Start here. The Ballad of Wallis Island is the clearest statement of what Sian Clifford does — accessible, 100 minutes, and rated 7.3 by our editors. No context required.
Our editors order this path by accessibility first and chronology second. You meet Sian 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.
The Duke (2021)
Keeps the comedy register of The Ballad of Wallis Island but asks for a colder reading of it.
The Magician's Elephant (2023)
Keeps the comedy register of The Duke but asks for a colder reading of it.
Chevalier (2023)
A deliberate change of key after The Magician's Elephant — same instrument, unfamiliar tuning, and the reason range gets mentioned.
Young Woman and the Sea (2024)
Keeps the drama register of Chevalier but asks for a colder reading of it.
Company kept
The directors and performers this career keeps returning to.
Roger Michell
Director
1 film together
Notably The Duke
Tom George
Director
1 film together
Notably See How They Run
Stephen Williams
Director
1 film together
Notably Chevalier
Joachim Rønning
Director
1 film together
Notably Young Woman and the Sea
James Griffiths
Director
1 film together
Notably The Ballad of Wallis Island
David Lowery
Director
1 film together
Notably Mother Mary
Behind the camera
Who casts this performer, how often, and what the pairing produces.
Joachim Rønning
Director
1 film together · 7.4 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Young Woman and the SeaJames Griffiths
Director
1 film together · 7.3 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
The Ballad of Wallis IslandRoger Michell
Director
1 film together · 7.0 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
The DukeStephen Williams
Director
1 film together · 6.4 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
ChevalierTom George
Director
1 film together · 6.3 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
See How They RunDavid Lowery
Director
1 film together · 5.5 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Mother MarySix 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
Young Woman and the Sea
as Charlotte 'Eppy' Epstein
The one that survives a fourth viewing. Nothing in the performance depends on surprise, which is why it keeps paying out.
Most emotional performance
Young Woman and the Sea
as Charlotte 'Eppy' Epstein
Grief played at conversational volume. The film never asks the audience to cry; the performance simply makes it difficult not to.
Most influential performance
Young Woman and the Sea
as Charlotte 'Eppy' Epstein
You can hear this reading in other actors' auditions a decade later — the surest measure of influence there is.
Best ensemble performance
The Duke
as Dr. Unsworth
Work that makes everyone else in the frame better without ever pulling the camera towards itself.
Career defining performance
The Ballad of Wallis Island
as Amanda
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. Sian Clifford 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.
Comedy Legend
Awarded
6 catalogue titles in comedy, 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
Young Woman and the Sea
as Charlotte 'Eppy' Epstein
The last five minutes reorganise everything before them, and hold up when you already know what's coming.
Best opening
See How They Run
as Edana Romney
A first sequence that states the rules of the film without explaining a single one of them.
Most emotional
Mother Mary
as Jade
The film where the technique steps aside and lets the feeling arrive undefended.
Best twist
See How They Run
as Edana Romney
A reversal earned by information the film gave you and trusted you to misread.
Best visual achievement
Young Woman and the Sea
as Charlotte 'Eppy' Epstein
Images that would survive with the sound switched off.
Best action sequence
The Magician's Elephant
as Gloria Matienne (voice)
Geography, stakes and consequence held in the same frame — spectacle you can follow.
Best dialogue
The Duke
as Dr. Unsworth
Lines written to be spoken, staged so the pauses do half the work.
Most underrated film
The Duke
as Dr. Unsworth
The public vote sits below ours on this one, and the direction is the reason for the gap.
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Have your say
Community
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Reference
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