# National Board of Review Award for Breakthrough Performance

The National Board of Review Award for Breakthrough Performance is one of the annual film awards given by the National Board of Review of Motion Pictures since 1995.

## Winners
### 1990s

| Year | Winner | Film | Role |
| 1995 | Alicia Silverstone | Clueless | Cher Horowitz |
| 1996 | Renée Zellweger | Jerry Maguire | Dorothy Boyd |
| 1997 | Bai Ling | Red Corner | Shen Yuelin |
| 1998 | Angelina Jolie | Playing by Heart | Joan |
| 1998 | Billy Crudup | The Hi-Lo Country | Pete Calder |
| 1999 | Hilary Swank | Boys Don't Cry | Brandon Teena |
| 1999 | Wes Bentley | American Beauty | Ricky Fitts |

### 2000s

| Year | Winner | Film(s) | Role(s) |
| 2000 | Michelle Rodriguez | Girlfight | Diana Guzman |
| 2000 | Jamie Bell | Billy Elliot | Billy Elliot |
| 2001 | Naomi Watts | Mulholland Drive | Betty Elms / Diane Selwyn |
| 2001 | Hayden Christensen | Life as a House | Sam Monroe |
| 2002 | Maggie Gyllenhaal | Secretary | Lee Holloway |
| 2002 | Derek Luke | Antwone Fisher | Antwone Fisher |
| 2003 | Charlize Theron | Monster | Aileen Wuornos |
| 2003 | Paul Giamatti | American Splendor | Harvey Pekar |
| 2004 | Emmy Rossum | The Phantom of the Opera | Christine Daaé |
| 2004 | Topher Grace | In Good Company / P.S. | Carter Duryea / F. Scott Feinstadt |
| 2005 | Q'orianka Kilcher | The New World | Pocahontas |
| 2005 | Terrence Howard | Crash / Get Rich or Die Tryin' / Hustle & Flow | Cameron Thayer / Bama / Djay |
| 2006 | Jennifer Hudson | Dreamgirls | Effie White |
| 2006 | Rinko Kikuchi | Babel | Chieko Wataya |
| 2006 | Ryan Gosling | Half Nelson | Dan Dunne |
| 2007 | Elliot Page | Juno | Juno MacGuff |
| 2007 | Emile Hirsch | Into the Wild | Chris McCandless |
| 2008 | Viola Davis | Doubt | Mrs. Miller |
| 2008 | Dev Patel | Slumdog Millionaire | Jamal Malik |
| 2009 | Gabourey Sidibe | Precious | Claireece "Precious" Jones |
| 2009 | Jeremy Renner | The Hurt Locker | Sergeant First Class William James |

### 2010s

| Year | Winner | Film(s) | Role(s) |
| 2010 | Jennifer Lawrence | Winter's Bone | Ree Dolly |
| 2011 | Rooney Mara | The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo | Lisbeth Salander |
| 2011 | Felicity Jones | Like Crazy | Anna Gardner |
| 2012 | Quvenzhané Wallis | Beasts of the Southern Wild | Hushpuppy |
| 2012 | Tom Holland | The Impossible | Lucas Bennett |
| 2013 | Adèle Exarchopoulos | Blue Is the Warmest Colour | Adèle |
| 2013 | Michael B. Jordan | Fruitvale Station | Oscar Grant |
| 2014 | Jack O'Connell | Starred Up / Unbroken | Eric Love / Louis "Louie" Zamperini |
| 2015 | Abraham Attah | Beasts of No Nation | Agu |
| 2015 | Jacob Tremblay | Room | Jack Newsome |
| 2016 | Royalty Hightower | The Fits | Toni |
| 2016 | Lucas Hedges | Manchester by the Sea | Patrick Chandler |
| 2017 | Timothée Chalamet | Call Me by Your Name | Elio Perlman |
| 2018 | Thomasin McKenzie | Leave No Trace | Tom |
| 2019 | Paul Walter Hauser | Richard Jewell | Richard Jewell |

### 2020s

| Year | Winner | Film | Role |
| 2020 | Sidney Flanigan | Never Rarely Sometimes Always | Autumn Callahan |
| 2021 | Alana Haim | Licorice Pizza | Alana Kane |
| 2021 | Cooper Hoffman | Licorice Pizza | Gary Valentine |
| 2022 | Danielle Deadwyler | Till | Mamie Till-Mobley |
| 2022 | Gabriel LaBelle | The Fabelmans | Sammy Fabelman |
| 2023 | Teyana Taylor | A Thousand and One | Inez de la Paz |
| 2024 | Mikey Madison | Anora | Anora "Ani" Mikheeva |