Reflecting on the movies released during 2014 and it's fair to say there have been some fine performances from a number of the industry's biggest talents - it's certainly a promising sign for an exciting Academy Awards ceremony in the spring of next year. Timothy Spall proved that grunting and groaning could impart far more than you'd ever realised about a character in the biopic Mr. Turner, while another great British thespian, Ralph Fiennes, joined a perfect ensemble cast in Wes Anderson's charming The Grand Budapest Hotel as a perfectionist with an engaging degree of eccentricities. Established American actors delivered some truly sterling performances, too. Julianne Moore's turn as an academic suffering from early onset Alzheimer's disease in Still Alice was a compassionate exploration of a subject which could all too easily have drifted into Hollywood tearjerker territory, while J. K. Simmons notched up the intensity to level 11 in Whiplash. All hot Oscar contenders, these performances stand as a testament to the art and skill of acting at its finest. But it wasn't just the established talent who delivered fine performances this year - several up and coming actors also showed off their formidable talent in breakthrough roles which point to potentially awesome careers in the making. Here are ten of the best breakthrough performances from 2014's rising stars - if these movies are anything to go by they're definitely actors worth keeping an eye on.
