AFT Awards: Best Actress in a Leading Role

This is the second category of the 11th 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 149 films. Click here to see previous years of this category.

Honorable mentions:
Amanda Seyfried (The Last Word), Amy Ryan (Abundant Acreage Available), Anna Kendrick (Table 19), Annette Bening (Film Stars Don't Die in Liverpool), Ariel Winter (The Last Movie Star), Ashleigh Murray (Deidra and Laney Rob a Train), Aubrey Plaza (Ingrid Goes West), Britt Robertson (The Space Between Us), Céline Bonnier (The Passion of Augustine), Diane Kruger (In the Fade), Ela Thier (Tomorrow Ever After), Emma Watson (Beauty and the Beast), Erika Linder (Below Her Mouth), Frances McDormand (Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri), Gemma Arterton (Their Finest), Jasna Fritzi Bauer (Axolotl Overkill), Jenny Slate (Aardvark), Jenny Slate (Landline), Jessica Chastain (Molly's Game), Jessica Chastain (The Zookeeper's Wife), Judi Dench (Victoria and Abdul), Julia Garner (One Percent More Humid), Juliette Binoche (Let the Sun Shine In), Juno Temple (One Percent More Humid), Kate Winslet (Wonder Wheel), Lena Olin (Maya Dardel), Lily James (The Exception), Lily Mae Harrington (Some Freaks), Lois Smith (Marjorie Prime), Margot Robbie (I, Tonya), Melanie Lynskey (I Don't Feel at Home in this World Anymore), Meryl Streep (The Post), Michelle Morgan (It Happened in L.A.), Millicent Simonds (Wonderstruck), Natalie Krill (Below Her Mouth), Quinn Shephard (Blame), Rachel Crow (Deidra and Laney Rob a Train), Rebecca Ferguson (Despite the Falling Snow), Rebecca Hall (Permission), Rebecca Spence (Princess Cyd), Rooney Mara (Una), Rosamund Pike (A United Kingdom), Shaden Kanboura (In Between), Shirley MacLaine (The Last Word), Taraneh Alidoosti (The Salesman), Taylor Schilling (Take Me), Vicky Krieps (Phantom Thread), Zoe Lister-Jones (Band Aid), Zosia Mamet (The Boy Downstairs)

Runners-up:
Brooklynn Prince (The Florida Project)
Jessie Pinnick (Princess Cyd)
Nadia Alexander (Blame)
Sally Hawkins (The Shape of Water)
Emma Stone (Battle of the Sexes)

The winner:
Saoirse Ronan (Lady Bird) was perfectly reminiscent of her director Greta Gerwig on screen, making a precocious teenage rebel found in so many films distinctly her own.

Other nominees:
Olivia Cooke (Thoroughbreds) and Anya Taylor-Joy (Thoroughbreds) shared top billing as two outcast teenagers united by their discomfort in the world and their dark fascinations. Zoe Kazan (The Big Sick) was immediately sweet and sophisticated, making her presence count during each of her scenes. Noa Koler (The Wedding Plan) expressed such a wonderful sense of unflappable positivity about her future despite all events indicating eternal loneliness.