1. Katie O'Grady
She sympathetically plays the depressed Meris in Rid of Me, and through her eyes and earnest depiction, you can see Meris change through every stage of being until she finds herself.
2. Alicia Vikander
A Danish actress, Vikander used the triumphant Danish film A Royal Affair to help her American breakthrough and then used the British masterpiece Anna Karenina to cement her new found fame. She shows both Kitty's heartbroken innocence and Caroline's crushed romantic idealism.
3. Juno Temple
A young American indie actress who has played a number of smaller roles, Temple takes on the title role of Dirty Girl with a fun determination and makes the rebellious daughter and inappropriate sex symbol sympathetic and endearing.
4. Skyler Astin
He plays one of the most likable heroes of the so-called "chick flick" in Pitch Perfect. He's likable, funny, sympathetic, sane, independent and romantic, all at the same time.
5. Hanna Hall
She made her film debut as a child actress playing the young Jenny in Forrest Gump, but in Scalene she really started to come into her own. Hall carries the film in the most interesting segments as the victim Paige. She's young and inexperienced, but smart and determined to do the right thing, if only she could figure out what that is. Paige is also strong and independent, and scared and alone. It's a remarkable performance where she shows both her strength and vulnerability.
6. Samantha Weinstein
She stood out as a brilliant character in a supporting role in Jesus Henry Christ. Playing an adolescent with the hardest life imaginable, Weinstein was uniquely beautiful and sympathetically hilarious.
7. Jared Gilman
Making his film debut in the Wes Anderson movie Moonrise Kingdom, Gilman plays the lead, the troubled and unliked Sam, with a perfect mix of intelligence, precociousness, eccentricity and innocence.
8. Kara Hayward
Hayward is right alongside Jared Gilman also making her film debut in Wes Anderson's Moonrise Kingdom. Suzy is the slightly more grounded version of Sam and is a delightfully unexpected touchpoint for the audience with her realistic portrayal of adolescence rebellion, intelligence, precociousness and innocence.
9. Suraj Sharma.
As a "green" novice actor, Sharma very convincingly portrays a young man embarking on a brand new adventure in Life of Pi, who is then thrown into an even more dangerous one where he has to examine each challenge of who he is and what stands in his way.
10. Harrison Gilbertson
He plays the son of a mentally unstable woman in Virginia, but he's also the main view-point for the film, and through his naive eyes, he lends an air of stability (and love) to a story of chaos.