AFT Awards: Best Breakthrough Performance

This is the seventeenth category of the 10th 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.

*In an effort to recognize more talented performers, this year I’m including only those not nominated in other categories here.

The winner:
Alex R. Hibbert (Moonlight) was the first of three incredible actors playing one character in what could well be termed the story of the year, imbuing him with a quiet strength and very observational nature, taking in everything the world around him had to offer.

Other nominees:
Ashton Sanders (Moonlight) continued the evolution of a protagonist unsure of how he fit into the world, starting to explore and experiment more but still not ready to take on its challenges in a way that would best benefit him. Neel Sethi (The Jungle Book) achieved a marvelous feat, acting with an entire cast that wasn’t actually there, representing humanity and what it means in a computer-generated animal kingdom. Lucas Jade Zumman (20th Century Women) was surrounded by more knowledgeable women with greater life experience, and he played his part to perfection. Ferdia Walsh-Peelo (Sing Street) presented a bright outlook in an unexciting universe, making music to impress a girl because there was nothing else to do.