Independent Spirit Award for Best Breakthrough Performance

Independent Spirit Award for Best Breakthrough Performance
Presented by	Independent Spirit Awards
First award	Sean Nelson Fresh (1995)
Currently held by	Maisy Stella My Old Ass (2024)
Website	filmindependent.org

The Independent Spirit Award for Best Breakthrough Performance is an award presented annually at the Independent Spirit Awards to honor outstanding performances given by a new talent in an independent film. It was first presented in 1995 at the 10th Independent Spirit Awards as Best Debut Performance, which was won by Sean Nelson for his performance in the film Fresh . ^[1]

The category was then discontinued in 2005, but it was later re-introduced as Best Breakthrough Performance at the 2023 ceremony. ^[2] The Best Breakthrough Performance in a New Scripted Series category was added ahead of the 2024 ceremony. ^[3]

Winners and nominees

Aaron Eckhart won for In the Company of Men .

Michelle Rodriguez won for Girlfight .

Paul Dano won for L.I.E. .

Nia Vardalos won for My Big Fat Greek Wedding .

Nikki Reed won for Thirteen .

Rodrigo de la Serna won for The Motorcycle Diaries .

1990s

Year	Winner and nominees	Film	Role
1995 [1]	Sean Nelson	Fresh	Fresh
	Jeff Anderson	Clerks	Randal Graves
	Jeremy Davies	Spanking the Monkey	Ray Aibelli
	Alicia Witt	Fun	Bonnie
	Renée Zellweger	Love and a .45	Starlene Cheatham
1996 [1]	Justin Pierce	Kids	Casper
	Jason Andrews	Rhythm Thief	Simon
	Lisa Donaldson	River of Grass	Cozy
	Gabriel Casseus	New Jersey Drive	Kyle "Midget"
	Rose McGowan	The Doom Generation	Amy Blue
1997 [1]	Heather Matarazzo	Welcome to the Dollhouse	Dawn Wiener
	Jena Malone	Bastard Out of Carolina	Ruth Anne "Bone" Boatwright
	Brendan Sexton III	Welcome to the Dollhouse	Brandon McCarthy
	Arie Verveen	Caught	Nick
	Jeffrey Wright	Basquiat	Jean-Michel Basquiat
1998 [1]	Aaron Eckhart	In the Company of Men	Chad
	Tyrone D. Burton, Eddie Cutanda and Phuong Duong	Squeeze	Tyson, Hector and Bao
	Lysa Flores	Star Maps	Maria
	Darling Narita	Bang	The Girl
	Douglas Spain	Star Maps	Carlos
1999 [1]	Evan Adams	Smoke Signals	Thomas Builds-the-Fire
	Anthony Roth Costanzo	A Soldier's Daughter Never Cries	Francis Fortescue
	Andrea Hart	Miss Monday	Gloria
	Sonja Sohn	Slam	Lauren Bell
	Saul Williams		Ray Joshua

2000s

Year	Winner and nominees	Film	Role
2000 [1]	Kimberly J. Brown	Tumbleweeds	Mary Jo Walker
	Jessica Campbell	Election	Tammy Metzler
	Jade Gordon	Sugar Town	Gwen
	Toby Smith	Drylongso	Pica Sullivan
	Chris Stafford	Edge of Seventeen	Eric Hunter
2001 [1]	Michelle Rodriguez	Girlfight	Diana Guzman
	Curtis Cotton III, Candace Evanofski, Rachael Handy, Donald Holden and Damian Jewan Lee	George Washington	Buddy, Nasia, Sonya, George Richardson and Vernon
	Rory Culkin	You Can Count on Me	Rudy
	Emmy Rossum	Songcatcher	Deladis Slocumb
	Mike White	Chuck & Buck	Buck O'Brien
2002 [1]	Paul Dano	L.I.E.	Howie Blitzer
	Hilary Howard, Anthony Leslie and Mitchell Riggs	Kaaterskill Falls	Ren, Lyle and Mitchell
	Clint Jordan	Virgil Bliss	Virgil Bliss
	Ana Reeder	Acts of Worship	Alix
	Yolonda Ross	Stranger Inside	Treasure
2003 [1]	Nia Vardalos	My Big Fat Greek Wedding	Fotoula "Toula" Portokalos
	Bob Burrus	Tully	Tully Russell Coates Sr.
	America Ferrera	Real Women Have Curves	Ana García
	Raven Goodwin	Lovely & Amazing	Annie Marks
	Artel Kayàru	Dahmer	Rodney
2004 [1]	Nikki Reed	Thirteen	Evie Zamora
	Anna Kendrick	Camp	Fritzi Wagner
	Judy Marte	Raising Victor Vargas	Judy
	Victor Rasuk		Victor
	Janice Richardson	Anne B. Real	Cynthia Gimenez
2005 [1]	Rodrigo de la Serna	The Motorcycle Diaries	Alberto Granado
	Anthony Mackie	Brother to Brother	Perry
	Louie Olivos Jr.	Robbing Peter	Pedro
	Hannah Pilkes	The Woodsman	Robin
	David Sullivan	Primer	Abe

2020s

Year	Winner and nominees	Film	Role
2022 [4]	Stephanie Hsu	Everything Everywhere All at Once	Joy Wang / Jobu Tupaki
	Frankie Corio	Aftersun	Sophie
	Gracija Filipović	Murina	Julija
	Lily McInerny	Palm Trees and Power Lines	Lea
	Daniel Zolghadri	Funny Pages	Robert
2023 [5]	Dominic Sessa	The Holdovers	Angus Tully
	Marshawn Lynch	Bottoms	Mr. G
	Atibon Nazaire	Mountains	Xavier
	Tia Nomore	Earth Mama	Gia
	Anaita Wali Zada	Fremont	Donya
2024 [6]	Maisy Stella	My Old Ass	Elliott
	Isaac Krasner	Big Boys	Jamie
	Katy O'Brian	Love Lies Bleeding	Jacqueline "Jackie" Cleaver
	Mason Alexander Park	National Anthem	Carrie
	René Pérez Joglar	In the Summers	Vicente

Best Breakthrough Performance in a New Scripted Series

2020s

Year	Winner and nominees	Series	Role
2023 [5]	Keivonn Montreal Woodard	The Last of Us	Sam
	Clark Backo	The Changeling	Emma "Emmy" Valentine
	Aria Mia Loberti	All the Light We Cannot See	Marie-Laure LeBlanc
	Adjani Salmon	Dreaming Whilst Black	Kwabena
	Kara Young	I'm a Virgo	Jones
2024 [6]	Jessica Gunning	Baby Reindeer	Martha Scott
	Diarra Kilpatrick	Diarra from Detroit	Diarra Brickland
	Joe Locke	Agatha All Along	Billy Maximoff and Tommy Maximoff
	Megan Stott	Penelope	Penelope
	Hoa Xuande	The Sympathizer	The Captain

References

1. "37 Years of Nominees & Winners, 1986–2022" (PDF). Film Independent. Archived (PDF) from the original on July 13, 2022. Retrieved September 10, 2022.
2. Chapman, Wilson (August 23, 2022). "Spirit Awards to Implement Gender Neutral Acting Categories". Variety . Archived from the original on September 5, 2022. Retrieved September 9, 2022.
3. Hipes, Patrick (August 22, 2023). "Spirit Awards Add Breakthrough Performance Category For TV Ahead Of 2024 Ceremony". Deadline Hollywood . Archived from the original on March 3, 2024. Retrieved February 25, 2025.
4. Nordyke, Kimberly (March 4, 2023). "Film Independent Spirit Awards: Complete Winners List". The Hollywood Reporter . Retrieved March 5, 2023.
5. Moreau, Brent Lang; Lang, Brent; Moreau, Jordan (2023-12-05). "Spirit Awards 2024 Nominations List: 'Past Lives,' 'May December,' 'American Fiction' Lead With 5 Noms Each". Variety. Retrieved 2024-05-31.
6. D'Alessandro, Anthony (2024-12-04). "Spirit Awards Best Feature Nominees Include 'Anora', 'I Saw The TV Glow', 'Nickel Boys', 'Sing Sing' & 'The Substance'". Deadline. Retrieved 2024-12-05.