AFT Awards: Best Breakthrough Performance

This is the nineteenth category of the 4th Annual AFT Film Awards to be announced. The AFT Awards are my own personal choices for the best in film of each year and the best in television of each season. The AFT Film Awards include the traditional Oscar categories and a number of additional specific honors. Nominees are pictured in the order I’ve ranked them. Click here to see previous years of this category.

Honorable mentions (in alphabetical order):
Jessica Barden (Tamara Drewe), Alison Barry (Ondine), Charlotte Christie (Tamara Drewe), Shane Curry (Kisses), Kelly O’Neill (Kisses), Sarah Steele (Please Give), Hailee Steinfeld (True Grit)

The winner:
Katie Jarvis (Fish Tank) burst onto the screen with a fierce intensity and enormous opposition to authority.

Other nominees:
Jennifer Lawrence (Winter’s Bone) played a child taking on the role of an adult and was unflinching in her dedication to the part. Tahar Rahim (A Prophet) believably conveyed the transformation of a fresh young man in prison into a hardened, smart convict. Madeline Carroll (Flipped) stole a film away from all of her elders while managing to play a character who, for once, acted exactly her age. Portia Doubleday (Youth in Revolt) seduced Michael Cera’s character and made his quest to be with her a perfectly understandable, reasonable one.