AFT Awards: Best Actress in a Leading Role

This is the second category of the 6th 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 and drawn from a pool of approximately 95 films. Click here to see previous years of this category.

Honorable mentions:
Valeria Bertuccelli (All In ), Keira Knightley (Anna Karenina ), Sonia Nassery Cole (The Black Tulip), Bitsie Tulloch (Caroline and Jackie ), Marguerite Moreau (Caroline and Jackie ), Michelle Jenner (Extraterrestrial), Emily Blunt (The Five-Year Engagement), Jenna Fischer (The Giant Mechanical Man), Lola Creton (Goodbye First Love), Elizabeth Banks (People Like Us), Eva Green (Perfect Sense), Noomi Rapace (Prometheus), Maggie Smith (Quartet), Melanie Laurent (La Rafle), Aubrey Plaza (Safety Not Guaranteed), Astrid Bergès-Frisbey (The Well-Digger’s Daughter), Emily Blunt (Your Sister’s Sister)

Runners-up:
Zoe Kazan (Ruby Sparks)
Rosemarie DeWitt (Your Sister’s Sister)
Kara Hayward (Moonrise Kingdom)
Ashley Hinshaw (About Cherry)
Linda Cardellini (Return)

The winner:
Jennifer Lawrence (Silver Linings Playbook) stole every scene in which she appeared as the sardonic, fire-cracking widow with specific goals and little patience for anyone who got in her way.

Other nominees:
Jessica Chastain (Zero Dark Thirty) proved that last year wasn’t a fluke by turning in a focused performance as the tireless CIA agent who helped take down Osama Bin Laden. Quvenzhane Wallis (Beasts of the Southern Wild) displayed an infectious energy as the spirited Hushpuppy, living in her own magical world and owning every moment of it. Marion Cotillard (Rust and Bone) returned to her native language for a difficult and heart-wrenching performance as a victim whose life will never again be the same. Emmanuelle Riva (Amour) fully inhabited the role of an elderly woman whose health sharply declines, perfectly capturing every joyous and painful moment.