National Board of Review Award for Breakthrough Performance

National Board of Review Award for Breakthrough Performance
National Board of Review Award for Breakthrough Performance
Awarded for	Best Performance by a Breakthrough Performer
Country	United States
Presented by	National Board of Review
First award	Alicia Silverstone; Clueless (1995)
Currently held by	Chase Infiniti for One Battle After Another (2025)
Website	nationalboardofreview.org

Awarded forBest Performance by a Breakthrough Performer

First awardAlicia Silverstone
Clueless (1995)

The National Board of Review Award for Breakthrough Performance is one of the annual film awards given by the National Board of Review of Motion Pictures since 1995.

Year	Winner	Film	Role	Ref.
1995	Alicia Silverstone	Clueless	Cher Horowitz	^[1]
1996	Renée Zellweger	Jerry Maguire	Dorothy Boyd	^[2]
1997	Bai Ling	Red Corner	Shen Yuelin	^[3]
1998	Angelina Jolie	Playing by Heart	Joan	^[4]
1998	Billy Crudup	The Hi-Lo Country	Pete Calder	^[4]
1999	Hilary Swank	Boys Don't Cry	Brandon Teena	^[5]
1999	Wes Bentley	American Beauty	Ricky Fitts	^[5]

Year	Winner	Film(s)	Role(s)	Ref.
2000	Michelle Rodriguez	Girlfight	Diana Guzman	^[6]
2000	Jamie Bell	Billy Elliot	Billy Elliot	^[6]
2001	Naomi Watts	Mulholland Drive	Betty Elms / Diane Selwyn	^[7]
2001	Hayden Christensen	Life as a House	Sam Monroe	^[7]
2002	Maggie Gyllenhaal	Secretary	Lee Holloway	^[8]
2002	Derek Luke	Antwone Fisher	Antwone Fisher	^[8]
2003	Charlize Theron	Monster	Aileen Wuornos	^[9]
2003	Paul Giamatti	American Splendor	Harvey Pekar	^[9]
2004	Emmy Rossum	The Phantom of the Opera	Christine Daaé	^[10]
2004	Topher Grace	In Good Company / P.S.	Carter Duryea / F. Scott Feinstadt	^[10]
2005	Q'orianka Kilcher	The New World	Pocahontas	^[11]
2005	Terrence Howard	Crash / Get Rich or Die Tryin' / Hustle & Flow	Cameron Thayer / Bama / Djay	^[11]
2006	Jennifer Hudson	Dreamgirls	Effie White	^[12]
	Rinko Kikuchi	Babel	Chieko Wataya
	Ryan Gosling	Half Nelson	Dan Dunne
2007	Elliot Page^[a]	Juno	Juno MacGuff	^[13]
2007	Emile Hirsch	Into the Wild	Chris McCandless	^[13]
2008	Viola Davis	Doubt	Mrs. Miller	^[14]
2008	Dev Patel	Slumdog Millionaire	Jamal Malik	^[14]
2009	Gabourey Sidibe	Precious	Claireece "Precious" Jones	^[15]
2009	Jeremy Renner	The Hurt Locker	Sergeant First Class William James	^[15]

Year	Winner	Film(s)	Role(s)	Ref.
2010	Jennifer Lawrence	Winter's Bone	Ree Dolly	^[16]
2011	Rooney Mara	The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo	Lisbeth Salander	^[17]
2011	Felicity Jones	Like Crazy	Anna Gardner	^[17]
2012	Quvenzhané Wallis	Beasts of the Southern Wild	Hushpuppy	^[18]
2012	Tom Holland	The Impossible	Lucas Bennett	^[18]
2013	Adèle Exarchopoulos	Blue Is the Warmest Colour	Adèle	^[19]
2013	Michael B. Jordan	Fruitvale Station	Oscar Grant	^[19]
2014	Jack O'Connell	Starred Up / Unbroken	Eric Love / Louis "Louie" Zamperini	^[20]
2015	Abraham Attah	Beasts of No Nation	Agu	^[21]
2015	Jacob Tremblay	Room	Jack Newsome	^[21]
2016	Royalty Hightower	The Fits	Toni	^[22]
2016	Lucas Hedges	Manchester by the Sea	Patrick Chandler	^[22]
2017	Timothée Chalamet	Call Me by Your Name	Elio Perlman	^[23]
2018	Thomasin McKenzie	Leave No Trace	Tom	^[24]
2019	Paul Walter Hauser	Richard Jewell	Richard Jewell	^[25]

Year	Winner	Film	Role	Ref.
2020	Sidney Flanigan	Never Rarely Sometimes Always	Autumn Callahan	^[26]
2021	Alana Haim	Licorice Pizza	Alana Kane	^[27]
2021	Cooper Hoffman	Licorice Pizza	Gary Valentine	^[27]
2022	Danielle Deadwyler	Till	Mamie Till-Mobley	^[28]
2022	Gabriel LaBelle	The Fabelmans	Sammy Fabelman	^[28]
2023	Teyana Taylor	A Thousand and One	Inez de la Paz	^[29]
2024	Mikey Madison	Anora	Anora "Ani" Mikheeva	^[30]
2025	Chase Infiniti	One Battle After Another	Willa Ferguson / Charlene Calhoun

1990s