AFT Awards: Best Breakthrough Performance

This is the twentieth category of the 12th 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:
Ben Spence (Breath), Jessie Buckley (Beast), Jyo Kairi (Shoplifters), Leo James Davis (A Kid Like Jake), Maggie Mulubwa (I Am Not a Witch), Mahour Jabbari (Ava), Miyu Sasaki (Shoplifters)

The winner:
Zain al Rafeea (Capernaum) embodied a child who understood much more of what was going on in his life than even the adults did, determined to protect those he cared for above all.

Other nominees:
Isabelle Nélisse (The Tale) was mesmerizing as a young girl so seemingly mature yet so prone to being taken advantage of by those who treated her as an equal. Elvire Emanuelle (First Match) demonstrated a fierce determination to succeed, not willing to let anyone else tell her how to be or what to do. Mariam Al Ferjani (Beauty and the Dogs) was vulnerable yet incredibly strong as a victim fully aware that those she needed to convince were the very ones responsible for hurting her. Samson Coulter (Breath) displayed a youthful energy and sense of wonder that helped to carry his film.