A boy does a bicycle kick as he practises on the Marina beach ahead of the World Cup soccer tournament in Brazil, in Chennai June 4, 2014. REUTERS/Babu

First Place, Sports Photojournalist Of The Year. One of 24 photos by Patrick Smith, freelance for Getty Images: Sadie Bezzant is crushed by a sheep during the pre-rodeo entertainment of mutton busting during the Strawberry Days Rodeo in Pleasant Grove, Utah. (Photo by Patrick Smith)

Photographer Howard Schatz had an idea: place actors in a series of roles and dramatic situations to reveal the essence of their characters. Such was the premise behind his book, In Character: Actors Acting, which captures some of Hollywood’s most emotive stars in the act of, well, making faces. Luckily for us, he continued the tradition for Vanity Fair. Here are some of the best.

Graduates jump as they pose for photographs in front of the Tiananmen Gate and the giant portrait of late Chinese Chairman Mao Zedong, on the Tiananmen Square in Beijing, June 19, 2014. (Photo by Reuters/Stringer)

Ethnic Miao women wearing traditional costumes take part in a parade during the traditional Lusheng (reed-pipe wind instrument) festival in Gulong, Guizhou province, China November 15, 2017. (Photo by Reuters/China Stringer Network)

American fashion model Simone Thompson, better known as Slick Woods attends The Daily Front Row's 5th Annual Fashion Los Angeles Awards at Beverly Hills Hotel on March 17, 2019 in Beverly Hills, California. (Photo by Frazer Harrison/Getty Images)

A torch bearer poses for photographs during the Olympic Torch Relay Celebration event on July 21, 2021 in Tokyo, Japan. As the Olympic torch relay makes its way around Tokyo, public relays have been cancelled in favour of daily ceremonies held behind closed doors, as authorities act to avoid large gatherings while the country endures a fourth wave of coronavirus. (Photo by Yuichi Yamazaki/Getty Images)