He is best known for his roles as Filip in Loft (2008), Jacky Vanmarsenille in the Oscar-nominated Bullhead (2011), and Ali in the BAFTA and Golden Globe-nominee Rust and Bone (2012), for which he won the César Award for Most Promising Actor.

He played Eric Deeds in The Drop (2014), Bruno von Falk in Suite Française (2015), Gabriel Oak in Far from the Madding Crowd (2015), Hans Axgil in The Danish Girl (2015), and Uncle Vanya in Red Sparrow (2018).

Schoenaerts received critical acclaim for his portrayal of an ex-soldier suffering from PTSD in Disorder (2015), and for his performance as an inmate training a wild horse in The Mustang (2019).

In 2002, he starred in Dorothée Van Den Berghe's Meisje (Girl);[17] Tom Barman's Any Way the Wind Blows in 2003; Rudolf Mestdagh's Ellektra[18] and Roel Mondelaers and Raf Reyntjens's sci-fi short film A Message from Outer Space,[19] which Schoenaerts also produced in 2004.

[27] In 2011, Schoenaerts played Jacky Vanmarsenille, the lead role in Bullhead, directed by Michaël R. Roskam, which was nominated for the Best Foreign Language Oscar.

[40] In 2014, Schoenaerts appeared alongside Clive Owen, Billy Crudup and again Marion Cotillard in the thriller Blood Ties, in which he played Anthony Scarfo.

He played Eric Deeds in The Drop, his second film with Michael R. Roskam, starring opposite Tom Hardy, Noomi Rapace and James Gandolfini.

[58] In 2017, Schoenaerts reteamed with Michaël R. Roskam in the Belgian film Racer and the Jailbird (Le Fidèle), in the role of a gangster named Gigi.

[59] In the same year, Schoenaerts played Gene, Jane Fonda's son on the Netflix film Our Souls at Night, also starring Robert Redford and directed by Ritesh Batra.

[66] In 2019, Schoenaerts appeared as Captain Herder in Terrence Malick's A Hidden Life, as Maywood in Steven Soderbergh's The Laundromat,[67] and as Roman Coleman, an inmate who participates in a rehabilitation program centered around training of wild horses in Laure de Clermont-Tonnerre's The Mustang.

In 2021, Schoenaerts starred as Peter Flood in Jeremie Guez's Brothers by Blood[70] and as Jurgen in the Flemish TV anthology Lockdown[71] episode "Zuur" alongside him was Veerle Baetens.

[72] His upcoming works include Terrence Malick's The Way of the Wind,[73] Justin Kurzel's Ruin alongside Margot Robbie,[74] and David O. Russell's Amsterdam.

In September 2024 Schoenaerts was cast in the DC Universe film Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow as the villain Krem of the Yellow Hills, with Milly Alcock starring as the title character.

The agency has collaborated on the casting of films like Black by Adil El Arbi and Bilall Fallah, and Belgica by Felix Van Groeningen.