AFT Awards: Best Breakthrough Performance

This is the seventeenth 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.

The winner:
Quvenzhané Wallis (Beasts of the Southern Wild) was indisputably this year’s breakout star, completely carrying her film at a young age with boundless energy.

Other nominees:
Jared Gilman and Kara Hayward (Moonrise Kingdom) were wonderfully mature and endearing as two star-crossed young romantics. Samantha Barks (Les Miserables) stole the show from a handful of stars with her passion and spirit. Carrie MacLemore (Damsels in Distress) was a bundle of blissful, naïve cheeriness in an ensemble populated with other charming women.