Performer
A performer whose catalogue work here is strong, with the fuller case still to be made.
Nutevio rank
#4641
of 909177 performers
Top 1%
Alessandro Nivola represents the rare performer whose career became more ambitious with every decade — 29 years in, and Alessandro is still choosing the harder script.
The essay
Our editors on the work, the patterns and the reason this body of work holds together.
Alessandro Nivola appears in 30 films in the Nutevio catalogue, and none of them would work the same way without Alessandro. Selma 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 romance, comedy, drama. It is a style built on what is withheld as much as what is played.
Working with Matthew Shear, Simon Curtis, J.C. Chandor and others, Alessandro Nivola 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.
Selma (2014) as John Doar · Face/Off (1997) as Pollux Troy · Downton Abbey: The Grand Finale (2025) as Gus Sambrook
Career snapshot
Ranked #4641 of 909177 performers tracked in the Nutevio library.
Films in Nutevio
30
1997–2026
Career length
29 yrs
Measured across our catalogue
Academy Awards
—
Unknown
Oscar nominations
—
Unknown
Highest Nutevio score
7.4
Selma
Average Nutevio score
6.4
Across catalogue work
Highest IMDb rating
7.4
Selma
Most frequent director
J.C. Chandor
2 films together
Longest collaboration
2×
With J.C. Chandor
Most common genre
Drama
23 titles
Average runtime
1h 55m
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
6.5
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
1990s
6.8 average MV
The 1990s are where the work and the material meet. Face/Off, Inventing the Abbotts — the run our editors reach for first when the argument is about range rather than fame.
Highest average Nutevio score
1990s
6.8
Across 2 catalogue films in this decade, our scores never drop below the level a career is judged on.
Highest average IMDb rating
1990s
6.7
The public agrees most strongly about this stretch — useful context, and occasionally a decade behind our own reading.
Most awarded era
1990s
0 Academy Awards
Statuettes for the films themselves, which is the honest way to read an ensemble career. Face/Off, Inventing the Abbotts.
Most productive era
2010s
11 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 | 1990s | 2000s | 2010s | 2020s |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Drama | 6.31 film | 6.25 films | 6.610 films | 6.27 films |
| Action | 7.21 film | — | — | 6.61 film |
| Thriller | — | 6.03 films | 6.56 films | 6.62 films |
| Comedy | — | 6.02 films | 6.61 film | 5.65 films |
| Crime | 7.21 film | — | 6.54 films | 6.42 films |
| Romance | 6.31 film | 5.72 films | 6.91 film | 6.03 films |
| Horror | — | 5.91 film | 6.51 film | — |
Chronology
Firsts and peaks
The turning points, in the order they happened.
First film in Nutevio · Career peak
1997Face/Off
Where our catalogue meets this career, as Pollux Troy. Weighing billing against the film's own quality, this is the point where everything aligned at once.
Highest rated performance
2014Selma
7.4 on the Nutevio scale, the top of the catalogue for this performer.
Most recent film
2026Fantasy Life
The current state of the argument, as David.
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.
30 of 30 films
as Dovid Kuperman
Directed by Unknown
as Sammy Navon
Directed by Gideon Raff
as John Doar
Directed by Ava DuVernay
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
Dovid Kuperman
Disobedience (2018)
Performance score7.3
The performance the rest of the career is read through. Dovid Kuperman gives Alessandro Nivola a structure to work against, and the film hands over its centre of gravity without hesitation.
View movie#2
Pollux Troy
Face/Off (1997)
Performance score7.3
Face/Off asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Pollux Troy is played without a single line of pleading for the audience's sympathy — which is exactly why it lands.
View movie#3
Sammy Navon
The Red Sea Diving Resort (2019)
Performance score7.2
The Red Sea Diving Resort asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Sammy Navon is played without a single line of pleading for the audience's sympathy — which is exactly why it lands.
View movie#4
John Doar
Selma (2014)
Performance score7.2
Selma asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. John Doar 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 Dovid Kuperman
Start here. Disobedience is the clearest statement of what Alessandro Nivola does — accessible, 114 minutes, and rated 6.9 by our editors. No context required.
Our editors order this path by accessibility first and chronology second. You meet Alessandro 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.
Face/Off (1997)
A deliberate change of key after Disobedience — same instrument, unfamiliar tuning, and the reason range gets mentioned.
Selma (2014)
A deliberate change of key after Face/Off — same instrument, unfamiliar tuning, and the reason range gets mentioned.
The Red Sea Diving Resort (2019)
Keeps the drama register of Selma but asks for a colder reading of it.
The Many Saints of Newark (2021)
Keeps the drama register of The Red Sea Diving Resort but asks for a colder reading of it.
Company kept
The directors and performers this career keeps returning to.
David O. Russell
Director
2 films together
Notably American Hustle
J.C. Chandor
Director
2 films together
Notably Kraven the Hunter
John Woo
Director
1 film together
Notably Face/Off
Joe Johnston
Director
1 film together
Notably Jurassic Park III
Lisa Cholodenko
Director
1 film together
Notably Laurel Canyon
Pieter Jan Brugge
Director
1 film together
Notably The Clearing
Danny Cannon
Director
1 film together
Notably Goal!
Atom Egoyan
Director
1 film together
Notably Devil's Knot
Ava DuVernay
Director
1 film together
Notably Selma
Nicolas Winding Refn
Director
1 film together
Notably The Neon Demon
Gideon Raff
Director
1 film together
Notably The Red Sea Diving Resort
Riley Stearns
Director
1 film together
Notably The Art of Self-Defense
Gina Gershon
Director
1 film together
Notably With/In Volume 2
Alan Taylor
Director
1 film together
Notably The Many Saints of Newark
Pedro Almodóvar
Director
1 film together
Notably The Room Next Door
Brady Corbet
Director
1 film together
Notably The Brutalist
Simon Curtis
Director
1 film together
Notably Downton Abbey: The Grand Finale
Matthew Shear
Director
1 film together
Notably Fantasy Life
Behind the camera
Who casts this performer, how often, and what the pairing produces.
J.C. Chandor
Director
2 films together · 6.6 avg MV
A working relationship rather than a booking — 2 films, and the register shifts each time.
Best film together
Kraven the HunterDavid O. Russell
Director
2 films together · 6.5 avg MV
A working relationship rather than a booking — 2 films, and the register shifts each time.
Best film together
American HustleAva DuVernay
Director
1 film together · 7.4 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
SelmaJohn Woo
Director
1 film together · 7.2 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Face/OffSimon Curtis
Director
1 film together · 7.0 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Downton Abbey: The Grand FinaleBrady Corbet
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 BrutalistGideon Raff
Director
1 film together · 6.8 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
The Red Sea Diving ResortDanny Cannon
Director
1 film together · 6.8 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Goal!Pedro Almodóvar
Director
1 film together · 6.7 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
The Room Next DoorRiley Stearns
Director
1 film together · 6.6 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
The Art of Self-DefenseNicolas Winding Refn
Director
1 film together · 6.5 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
The Neon DemonAlan Taylor
Director
1 film together · 6.3 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
The Many Saints of NewarkMatthew Shear
Director
1 film together · 6.2 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Fantasy LifeAtom Egoyan
Director
1 film together · 6.2 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Devil's KnotJoe Johnston
Director
1 film together · 6.2 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Jurassic Park IIILisa Cholodenko
Director
1 film together · 5.9 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Laurel CanyonPieter Jan Brugge
Director
1 film together · 5.8 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
The ClearingGina Gershon
Director
1 film together · 4.0 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
With/In Volume 2Six 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
Selma
as John Doar
The one that survives a fourth viewing. Nothing in the performance depends on surprise, which is why it keeps paying out.
Most emotional performance
Selma
as John Doar
Grief played at conversational volume. The film never asks the audience to cry; the performance simply makes it difficult not to.
Most influential performance
Selma
as John Doar
You can hear this reading in other actors' auditions a decade later — the surest measure of influence there is.
Best ensemble performance
Downton Abbey: The Grand Finale
as Gus Sambrook
Work that makes everyone else in the frame better without ever pulling the camera towards itself.
Career defining performance
Disobedience
as Dovid Kuperman
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. Alessandro Nivola 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.
Career Achievement
Awarded
29 years of relevant work — not merely a long career, but a long career of choices.
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
23 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
Selma
as John Doar
The last five minutes reorganise everything before them, and hold up when you already know what's coming.
Best opening
Face/Off
as Pollux Troy
A first sequence that states the rules of the film without explaining a single one of them.
Most emotional
Downton Abbey: The Grand Finale
as Gus Sambrook
The film where the technique steps aside and lets the feeling arrive undefended.
Best twist
Boston Strangler
as Detective Conley
A reversal earned by information the film gave you and trusted you to misread.
Best visual achievement
Face/Off
as Pollux Troy
Images that would survive with the sound switched off.
Best action sequence
Kraven the Hunter
as Aleksei Sytsevich
Geography, stakes and consequence held in the same frame — spectacle you can follow.
Best dialogue
Fantasy Life
as David
Lines written to be spoken, staged so the pauses do half the work.
Most underrated film
Kraven the Hunter
as Aleksei Sytsevich
The public vote sits below ours on this one, and the direction is the reason for the gap.
If you like this performer
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Built a career in the same territory: adventure and drama
Matt Damon
Built a career in the same territory: adventure and drama
David Krumholtz
Built a career in the same territory: action and adventure
Cillian Murphy
Built a career in the same territory: drama and history
Morgan Freeman
Built a career in the same territory: action and crime
Robert Downey Jr.
Built a career in the same territory: drama and history
Have your say
Community
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Reference
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