tMF TALKBACK: Should younger actors win more awards?

Oscar talk is already all-year round (as if you don't know yet!), but it seems to me, the focus remains on the established performers - most notably the filmmakers and the lead actors and actresses (Streep, Dench, Day-Lewis, Eastwood, Scorsese). Some tMF readers remarked that perhaps it's great to talk about awards where the recipients are the younger performers. Of course, it has happened before when young talents (which means not older than 30) get the recognition they deserved.

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tMF takes a look at some of these winners - from the Oscars to the BAFTA to the Indie Spirit, the European Film Awards and more and asks should younger actors win more awards and why?

Young Oscar Winners and Nominees: The following either won or got nominated and are still not over 30 today: [correction made on Anna Paquin's award]

Jennifer Hudson won the Best Supporting for Dream Girls at 25, while Anna Paquin won the same award for The Piano at 11, one of the youngest ever. Nominees include Natalie Portman (Best Supporting for Closer when she was 24), Soairse Ronan (Best Supporting for Atonement when she was just 13), Keisha Castle-Hughes (Best Actress for Whale Rider when she was just 13),  Ellen Page (Best Actress for Juno at age 20), Abegail Breslin (Best Supporting for Little Miss Sunshine at 10), Rinko Kikuchi (Best Supporting for BABEL at 25, the year Hudson won) and Keira Knightley (Best Actress for Pride and Prejudice at 20) to name a few.

Heath Ledger won the Best Supporting (Posthumous) at 29, but he was 27 when he got the Best Actor nom for Brokeback Mountain. Nominees include Ryan Gosling (Best Actor for Half-Nelson when he was 26), Jake Gyllenhaal (Best Supporting for Brokeback Mountain when he was 25). While he's over 30, Adrien Brody won the Best Actor for The Pianist, when he was 29, the youngest ever to win.

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The International Scene + Indie and Festival Scenes: Young talents who have been recent winners and nominees

Of course, the youngest ever to win the BAFTA Best Actor is Jamie Bell for Billy Elliot, beating Russel Crowe (Gladiator) and Tom Hanks (Castaway) in the process. Andrew Garfield won the award for Boy A while Scarlett Johanson won the BAFTA for Lost in Translation. Those nominated for the lead awards include Ellen Page (Juno), James McAvoy (Atonement) and Dev Patel (Slumdog Millionaire). McAvoy was also the first recipient of the Orange Rising Star awards, a new category at the BAFTA, awarded to the most promising actor every year.

At the Independent Spirit, we have Shareeka Epps who won the Best Female Lead for Half Nelson in 2006. Ellen Page followed her the next year for Juno. Sienna Miller (Interview), Anne Hathaway (Rachel Getting Married) and Michelle Williams (Wendy and Lucy) also got nominated. Anna Kendrick, on the other hand, got a nom for Best Supporting for her role in Rocket Science.

In 2001, both Ryan Gosling (The Believer) and Jake Gyllenhaal (Donnie Darko) were nominated for Best Male Lead and Gosling won the award for Half-Nelson, the same movie he was nominated for at the Oscars. Heath Ledger also got a nom for his role in Brokeback Mountain. Jesse Eisenberg (The Squid and the Whale), Paul Dano (Little Miss Sunshine) and Channing Tatum (A Guide to Recognizing your Saints) also got noms for Best Supporting Actor.

At the European Film Awards, Germany's Daniel Brühl (Goodbye Lenin!) won Best Actor in 2003 and he got the People's Choice award for the same category a year later.

At the recent festival scene, Robert Pattinson and Jim Sturgess both made waves for their performances. Pattinson won 2 Best Actor awards for How To Be, while Sturgess got critical acclaim for Fifty Dead Men Walking. Newcomer Carey Mulligan also got a lot of praises for her role in An Education, while Abbie Cornish also got lots of acclaim via Jane Campion's Bright Star, same as her leading man, Ben Whishaw.

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Fast Forward: Looking at the list of upcoming films, I have to say, this might be an exciting year for young talents and their chances to get nominations - not only at the Oscars, but also at other prestigious award-giving bodies like the Independent Film Awards, the Golden Globes and the Critics' awards from major US cities and centers like New York, Los Angeles and Boston.

For Best Actress, I think Saoirse Ronan's leading role in Peter Jackson's The Lovely Bones makes her a leading contender for an acting award, which is the same feeling I get for Natalie Portman in the upcoming Jim Sheridan film, Brothers, where she plays alongside Tobey Maguire and Jake Gyllenhaal (another award contender). As mentioned numerous times, Carey Mulligan's performance in An Education, which received a lot of buzz at Sundance makes her another contender. I also find Amanda Seyfried to be such an amazing actress, perhaps her role in Atom Egoyan's Chloe might give her some further acting recognition.

For Best Actor, can Ben Barnes deliver in Dorian Gray? How about Joseph Gordon Levitt in 500 Days of Summer? Oh, it would be quite exciting to see if Gaspard Ulliel, Jeremie Renier and Keisha Castle-Hughes get noticed in Niki Caro's The Vintner's Luck.

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What's on your mind? I agree that the older, the more polished the performance. It takes more than just talent to get an acting award - luck, connection, rapport with the director and scriptwriter and many more factors are necessary but how about those exceptional young actors, should they be 'withheld' from winning because they are young? I don't agree with the idea of having a Best Young Actor award either.

How about you? What do you think? Also, the list above is not complete, it is not even comprehensive, do you have other names that should be mentioned above?

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