What was the best nude scene of 2021?

The voting is closed. The people have spoken.

The vote took place in three parts this year.

In part one, there was a full month of nominations. (In case you have forgotten the scenes, there is a link to each of them on this list.)

In part two, each voter ranked every selection from top to bottom. Those choices were listed at random, separate on each ballot. That step determined the significant vote-getters and the initial seeding for the finals. Three additional late arrivals or omissions were added between the ranking stage and the final vote – and one of those eventually finished in the top ten.

In the finals, voters chose their one and only favorite for the year. The results were pretty clear. There was a definite #1 and #2. Numbers three through thirteen provided a smooth, gradual continuum, then there was a big drop-off between #13 and #14. There were some surprises in the final results, as certain scenes gained or lost support based upon the voters’ willingness to apply their one and only vote to a given scene. Modest nude scenes with popular figures like Elle Fanning and Alexandra Daddario, were replaced in the final top ten by great nude scenes by lesser-known actresses.

The results are shown below. My full recap is here.

What was your favorite nude performance of 2021?
Sydney Sweeney in Voyeurs 225 ( 25.25 % )
Sarah Shahi in Sex/Life 82 ( 9.2 % )
Maryse Miege in I Comete 53 ( 5.95 % )
Megan Montaner in 30 Coins 44 ( 4.94 % )
Alexa Miro in A Girl and a \Guy 43 ( 4.83 % )
Lea Seydoux in The French Dispatch 40 ( 4.49 % )
Kiko Mizuhara and Honami Sato in Ride or Die 37 ( 4.15 % )
Sydney Meyer in Y: The Last Man 35 ( 3.93 % )
Odessa Young in Mothering Sunday 33 ( 3.7 % )
Noemie Merlant in Olympiades 32 ( 3.59 % )
Elle Fanning in The Great (season 2) 31 ( 3.48 % )
Virginie Efira in Benedetta 26 ( 2.92 % )
Andra Day in The U.S. vs Billie Holiday 24 ( 2.69 % )
Halsey in If I Can't Have Love, I Want Power 15 ( 1.68 % )
Julia Fox in PVT Chat 12 ( 1.35 % )
Vivi Koenig in Even Closer: Hautnah 11 ( 1.23 % )
Alexandra Daddario in The White Lotus 11 ( 1.23 % )
Ilana Glazer in False Positive 10 ( 1.12 % )
Kelli Berglund in Heels 10 ( 1.12 % )
Bracken Burns in Falling 10 ( 1.12 % )
Emma Laird in Mayor of Kingstown 9 ( 1.01 % )
Katherine Waterston and Vanessa Kirby in The World to Come 9 ( 1.01 % )
Madison Iseman in IKWTDLS 9 ( 1.01 % )
Helen Hunt in Blindspotting 8 ( 0.9 % )
AnnaLynne McCord in Power Book III 8 ( 0.9 % )
Matilda De Angelis in Leonardo 7 ( 0.79 % )
Mia Wasikowska in Bergman Island 7 ( 0.79 % )
Riley Voelkel in Hightown (season two) 6 ( 0.67 % )
Simone Johns in BMF 6 ( 0.67 % )
Heather Graham in The Last Son 6 ( 0.67 % )
Daria Polasik-Bulka in The Land 6 ( 0.67 % )
Leonie Dahan-Lamort in L'Ile et le Continent 5 ( 0.56 % )
Carolina Amaral in Gloria 5 ( 0.56 % )
Lily-Rose Depp in Wolf 4 ( 0.45 % )
Agathe Rousselle in Titane 4 ( 0.45 % )
Luisa Ranieri in The Hand of God 3 ( 0.34 % )
Paz Vega in American Night 2 ( 0.22 % )
Isabella Santoni and Raquel Villar in Dom 2 ( 0.22 % )
Brianne Tju in IKWYDLS 1 ( 0.11 % )

23 thoughts on “What was the best nude scene of 2021?

  1. I didn’t vote for Sweeney, but didn’t have a problem with her winning. In five years it’s going to be the best remember scene of the lot, the “Nude Scene of the Year” if not “Best Nude Scene”.

    Like MVP, everyone probably has a slightly different definition:

    *Best Objective Scene (exposure, length, lighting): I think it was George C. Scott who said (paraphrasing) “Acting awards don’t matter unless everyone is playing Hamlet”. This a the scene that you’d like every actress to do as a screen test. Think Rosario Dawson in Trance.

    *Best Scene by a Popular Actress/Actress We’ve All Been Waiting for: Katie Holmes is the classic example

    *OMG What a Body: Sydney Meyer this year. She would have been my choice if the scene had more exposure.

    Sometimes you hit all three criteria, like Daddario. (See, I don’t even have to say in what.)

    1. I too was surprised by her mediocre showing, but as Dick Tuck said, “The people have spoke – the bastards.”

  2. I voted for Odessa Young. Its a great scene but admittedly its also a protest vote against Sweeney. I just don’t grasp her appeal. Yes, she’s attractive. And topless. The former is expected, the latter is common.

    I also was tempted to vote for Virginie Efira. I was little weirded out that Daphne Patakia didn’t make the final cut. In either case it would’ve felt like I was giving Verhoeven a life time achievement award rather than voting for best scene.

    1. I also do not get the appeal of Sweeney. She ok to look at but nothing spectacular. And the characters she played to date are very unsexy.

  3. I thought that there were a lot of great choices (thanks!), but I did vote for Ms. Sweeney. She looks just great, and there was something very direct and real about the way she interacted with the camera.

  4. Shahi would’ve been the obvious choice, but the usage of fake tits in some scenes rules her out for me. Reminds me of when Paula Marshall had cgi tits in Californication – after previously being legit nude in The New Age!

    1. The difference for me was that Shahi had genuine nudes in the same show, even in the same episodes. The fakery was there for plot reasons, not to avoid nudity.

      1. That said, I didn’t vote for it because I thought the nudity itself in that show was filmed and directed in a rather boring way.

  5. Maybe you can set it up so that we can vote for three (or five). You can award five points to the first choice, 3 to the second, and one to the third choice. There should still be a clear winner since everyone’s top three will be slightly different, but it would spread the points out over a larger number of candidates, like MLB’s MVP.

  6. Tough vote this year. I didn’t have a passionate favorite for the first time in forever. Was torn to the last minute and I’d call my final vote almost a coin toss. Went with my emotional fave, the scene that actually got my attention when it appeared on screen: Montaner.

    I see Sweeney is the clear breakaway lead. Sad. Pretty clear that’s just because of who she is. Better scenes with better exposure. Pure zeitgeist vote. Same for the Daddario votes, honestly.

    Surprised there aren’t more for Fanning or Depp per the usual formula, but it’s early days yet.

    1. I voted cliche this year – Sweeney. I gave some thought to Odessa Young and Vivi Koenig. Like you, I really had no passion for any particular selection except that I really liked the uninhibited performance of Daria Polasik-Bulka, but it was just so obscure that I couldn’t bring myself to pull the trigger on it.

    2. I ended up going with Seydoux. Full-frontal in multiple scenes from multiple angles in good, clear lighting won the day for me. Plus, her being absolutely gorgeous doesn’t hurt…

      1. There is no question that Lea was also a wonderful choice, and the movie was entertaining as well.

        There were many great nude scenes this year, but the very best scenes were not performed by the most popular women, so nothing really came together to challenge Sweeney.

        Take Elle Fanning and put her in Odessa Young’s performance – and that would have been the one to take on Sweeney.

        I’m hoping the other Sydney (Meyer) will do a great nude scene soon. I would like to see more of that body!

        1. That logic then you should change the title not best nude scene but best popular actress nude scene. Because if we go by best actual nude scene Odessa Young wins hands down and I disagree that Elle Fanning would be more popular we could say that about a lot of nude scenes. Basic Instinct I would have said a lot of actresses would have been better than Sharon Stone. Sydney Sweeney horrible actress and big tits that is not the nude scene of year sorry.

          1. What I said was if Elle Fanning had done Odessa Young’s role with the same nudity, she would have won the poll. And I stand by that.

            Similarly, if Odessa Young had grown up on a popular TV series, she probably would have won this year with that same performance.

          2. That’s not a POPULAR series by international standards, and our voting is international. Few people outside of Australia ever heard of that series; she is an unknown by international standards; and I assume 95% of us will struggle to remember her name by February.

          3. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/My_Place_(TV_series) 2 years I lived in Australia she starred in this show that was popular who nude scene is much better than Sweeney on nudity not popularity which was my point.

          4. There are at least ten nude scenes that are objectively better than Sydney’s, but people don’t vote analytically. They vote on what they liked best. (Evidence: Elle Fanning should not even have been nominated, let alone remain near the top of the list.)

          5. I agree with that. That scene is objectively better than Sydney’s. That’s why I said that if Elle Fanning had done it, it would have won the poll.

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