Breakthrough Performance

2004 National Board of Review - Breakthrough Performance WinnerIn Good CompanyTopher GraceA middle-aged ad exec is faced with a new boss who's nearly half his age... and who also happens to be sleeping with his daughter.AmazonThe Phantom of the OperaEmmy RossumA young soprano becomes the obsession of a disfigured and murderous musical genius who lives beneath the Paris Opéra House.Amazon

2005 National Board of Review - Breakthrough Performance WinnerCrashTerrence HowardLos Angeles citizens with vastly separate lives collide in interweaving stories of race, loss and redemption.AmazonThe New WorldQ'orianka KilcherThe story of the English exploration of Virginia, and of the changing world and loves of Pocahontas.Amazon

2006 National Board of Review - Breakthrough Performance WinnerBabelRinko KikuchiTragedy strikes a married couple on vacation in the Moroccan desert, touching off an interlocking story involving four different families.AmazonDreamgirlsJennifer HudsonA trio of black female soul singers cross over to the pop charts in the early 1960s, facing their own personal struggles along the way.AmazonHalf NelsonRyan GoslingAn inner-city junior high school teacher with a drug habit forms an unlikely friendship with one of his students after she discovers his secret.Amazon

2019 National Board of Review - Breakthrough Performance WinnerRichard JewellPaul Walter HauserAmerican security guard Richard Jewell saves thousands of lives from an exploding bomb at the 1996 Olympics, but is vilified by journalists and the press who falsely reported that he was a terrorist.Amazon

2008 National Board of Review - Breakthrough Performance WinnerDoubtViola DavisA Catholic school principal questions a priest's ambiguous relationship with a troubled young student.AmazonSlumdog MillionaireDev PatelA Mumbai teenager reflects on his life after being accused of cheating on the Indian version of "Who Wants to be a Millionaire?"Amazon

2009 National Board of Review - Breakthrough Performance WinnerPreciousGabourey SidibeIn New York City's Harlem circa 1987, an overweight, abused, illiterate teen who is pregnant with her second child is invited to enroll in an alternative school in hopes that her life can head in a new direction.AmazonThe Hurt LockerJeremy RennerDuring the Iraq War, a Sergeant recently assigned to an army bomb squad is put at odds with his squad mates due to his maverick way of handling his work.Amazon

2011 National Board of Review - Breakthrough Performance WinnerLike CrazyFelicity JonesA British college student falls for an American student, only to be separated from him when she's banned from the U.S. after overstaying her visa.AmazonThe Girl with the Dragon TattooRooney MaraJournalist Mikael Blomkvist is aided in his search for a woman who has been missing for forty years by Lisbeth Salander, a young computer hacker.Amazon

2012 National Board of Review - Breakthrough Performance WinnerThe ImpossibleTom HollandThe story of a tourist family in Thailand caught in the destruction and chaotic aftermath of the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami.Amazon

2013 National Board of Review - Breakthrough Performance WinnerBlue Is the Warmest ColorAdèle ExarchopoulosAdèle's life is changed when she meets Emma, a young woman with blue hair, who will allow her to discover desire and to assert herself as a woman and as an adult. In front of others, Adèle grows, seeks herself, loses herself, and ultimately finds herself tAmazonFruitvale StationMichael B. JordanThe story of Oscar Grant III, a 22-year-old Bay Area resident, who crosses paths with friends, enemies, family, and strangers on the last day of 2008.Amazon