Christoph Waltz

Movie: Inglourious Basterds

Role: The sickeningly charming “Jew Hunter”.

Justification: No one can deny that Hans “The Jew Hunter” Landa is one of the most evil villains of recent movie history. A man who literally kills with kindness, Landa drips with loathsome charm. Up until Basterds, Waltz was a virtual nobody, at least to the English-language community, but it all changed when he won the best-actor prize at Cannes. He’s now also a Golden Globe winner, and if the members of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences have any sense, he’ll soon bring home Oscar gold.

Next Up: The Green Hornet.

Carey Mulligan

Movie: An Education

Role: A naïve schoolgirl seduced by a sophisticated charmer almost twice her age.

Justification: Ever since Lone Scherfig’s coming-of-age tale An Education debuted at Sundance, the film community has been raving about Carey Mulligan’s performance. As a restless adolescent caught somewhere between childhood and adulthood, Mulligan delivers an outstandingly effervescent and charming performance in a film that probably wouldn’t have garnered as much attention without her. Unknown to most filmgoers only a year ago, she’s now considered to be an Oscar front-runner.

Next Up: Never Let Me Go, based on Kazuo Ishiguro’s novel, and Oliver Stone’s Wall Street 2.

Sharlto Copley

Movie: District 9

Role: A prawn-wrangling corporate drone facing some unusual challenges.

Justification: Sharlto Copley made a hell-of-a debut in 2009’s sci-fi sleeper hit, District 9. As the slightly clueless but surprisingly resilient Wikus Van De Merwe, Copley managed to add humor and sensitivity to the slightly outlandish role. The character could have fallen apart in the hands of the wrong actor, but Copley brings this absurd predicament to life with such humorous and sensitive desperation, it – like the rest of the movie – feels surprisingly real.

Next Up: Captain ‘Howling Mad’ Murdock in the new A-Team movie.

Anna Kendrick

Movie: Up in the Air

Role: An over-confident newcomer to the world of corporate downsizing.

Justification: It’s not easy to hold one’s own against George Clooney, let alone upstage him, but somehow Anna Kendrick managed to do it. As a character-driven film with little action, Up in the Air needed actors with some serious skills to handle the dialogue-heavy material. Kendrick did it with aplomb. Her ability to go from perfectly-coiffed, level-headed employee, to messy emotional wreck made her the star of the show. Oh yeah, she also has a role in the relatively unknown Twilight series.

Next Up: Edgar Wright’s Scott Pilgrim vs. the World and The Twilight Saga: Eclipse

Jeremy Renner

Movie: The Hurt Locker

Role: A reckless bomb-diffusing soldier whose needless risk-taking infuriates his team.

Justification: If you haven’t heard of Jeremy Renner, you will soon. In Kathryn Bigelow’s The Hurt Locker, Renner plays a fearless soldier addicted to danger. It’s tough to bring a serious, nuanced performance to an action movie, but then again, The Hurt Locker is no regular action movie. Nevertheless, Renner’s quiet portrayal of the dauntless bomb squad captain is what helped make the movie such an intense thrill ride. Leading man roles are most definitely on the way.

Next Up: Ben Affleck’s The Town, and if the rumors are to be believed, The Avengers.

Honorable Mentions

Mo’Nique for her role as a despicably insecure mother in the otherwise average Precious.

Saoirse Ronan as a murdered teenager unable to tear herself away from her family in The Lovely Bones.

Colin Firth for his role as a man quietly suffering unimaginable grief in A Single Man. Yeah, I know Colin Firth was already famous, but this role should bring his career to a whole new level.