6. Hailee Steinfeld - True Grit
It's one thing for a child actor to play a role that is essentially just a version of themselves. It's something else altogether for one to attempt a period character, with a way of speaking and acting that's completely outside their realm of experience. That's what Hailee Steinfeld manages in True Grit, and there's a reason she got an Oscar nomination for her work. After you've seen her performance as the prickly, waspish young girl trying to avenge her father's murder, it's almost a shock to see the sweet, charming actress who shows up on the red carpet. And what's more, she does the nearly impossible: she makes sympathetic a character that has such potential to be unlikeable. She embodies the character with the skill of an actor twice her age -- you can see it in Mattie's stiff little walk and hear it in the harsh cadence of her voice.