Empire Award for Best Newcomer

Empire Award for Best Newcomer
Awarded for	Best breakthrough film by a director or best breakthrough performance by an actor and actress
Country	United Kingdom
Presented by	Empire magazine
First awarded	1996
Last awarded	2011
Currently held by	Chloë Grace Moretz - Kick-Ass and Let Me In (2011)

The Empire Award for Best Newcomer (formerly known as Best Debut) was an Empire Award presented annually by the British film magazine Empire to honor a director with a breakthrough film or an actor who has delivered a breakthrough performance while working within the film industry. The Empire Award for Best Newcomer was first introduced at the 1st Empire Awards ceremony in 1996 with Bryan Singer receiving the award for his direction of The Usual Suspects and last presented at the 16th Empire Awards ceremony in 2011. Winners were voted by the readers of Empire magazine.

Since its inception, the award has been given to two male directors, eight actors, seven actresses and one film crew. Gemma Arterton was the only individual to be nominated two times, at the 13th and 14th Empire Awards ceremonies in 2008 and 2009 respectively. Twice two awards were handed out at the same year. The first time was at the 5th Empire Awards ceremony in 2000 where there was a tie between Carrie-Anne Moss and the crew of East Is East and the second time was at the 12th Empire Awards ceremony in 2007 where the award was split to Male and Female newcomers. Chloë Grace Moretz was the last winner in this category for her roles in Kick-Ass and Let Me In.

Award history

The award was named "Best Debut" between the 1st Empire Awards in 1996 and the 7th Empire Awards in 2002 and was changed to "Best Newcomer". In 2000, 2007 and 2012, the category was split to "Best Male Newcomer" and "Best Female Newcomer".

Winners and nominees

In the list below, winners are listed first in boldface, followed by the other nominees. The number of the ceremony (1st, 2nd, etc.) appears in parentheses after the awards year, linked to the article (if any) on that ceremony.

1990s

Year	Actor	Film	Ref.
1996 (1st)	Bryan Singer	The Usual Suspects	[1]
1997 (2nd)	Ewen Bremner	Trainspotting	[2]
1998 (3rd)	Gary Oldman	Nil by Mouth	[3]
1999 (4th)	Vinnie Jones	Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels	[4]
	Cate Blanchett	Elizabeth
	Charlize Theron	The Devil's Advocate
	Denise Richards	Starship Troopers
	Shane Meadows	Twenty Four Seven

2000s

Year	Actor	Film	Ref.
2000 (5th)	Carrie-Anne Moss	The Matrix	[5]
	The crew of	East Is East
	Eduardo Sánchez and Daniel Myrick	The Blair Witch Project
	Haley Joel Osment	The Sixth Sense
	Jewel	Ride with the Devil
	Tim Roth	The War Zone
2001 (6th)	Jamie Bell	Billy Elliot	[6]
	Nick Park and Peter Lord	Chicken Run
	Sam Mendes	American Beauty
	Sofia Coppola	The Virgin Suicides
	Spike Jonze	Being John Malkovich
2002 (7th)	Orlando Bloom	The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring	[7]
	Billy Boyd and Dominic Monaghan	The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring
	Daniel Radcliffe, Rupert Grint and Emma Watson	Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone
	Keira Knightley	The Hole
	Sharon Maguire	Bridget Jones's Diary
2003 (8th)	Rosamund Pike	Die Another Day	[8]
	Cillian Murphy	28 Days Later
	Neil Marshall	Dog Soldiers
	Martin Compston	Sweet Sixteen
	Parminder Nagra	Bend It Like Beckham
2004 (9th)	Martine McCutcheon	Love Actually	[9]
	Andrew Lincoln	Love Actually
	Eli Roth	Cabin Fever
	Fenella Woolgar	Bright Young Things
	Mackenzie Crook	Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl
2005 (10th)	Freddie Highmore	Finding Neverland	[10]
	Bryce Dallas Howard	The Village
	Matthew Vaughn	Layer Cake
	Sienna Miller	Alfie and Layer Cake
	Zach Braff	Garden State
2006 (11th)	Kelly Reilly	Mrs Henderson Presents	[11]
	Georgie Henley	The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe
	James McAvoy	The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe
	Leo Gregory	Stoned
	Nathan Fillion	Serenity
2007 (12th)	Brandon Routh	Superman Returns	[12]
	Alex Pettyfer	Stormbreaker
	Dominic Cooper	Starter for 10 and The History Boys
	Paul Dano	Little Miss Sunshine
	Rian Johnson	Brick
2007 (12th)	Eva Green	Casino Royale	[13]
	Abigail Breslin	Little Miss Sunshine
	Ellen Page	Hard Candy
	Rebecca Hall	Starter for 10 and The Prestige
	Vera Farmiga	The Departed
2008 (13th)	Sam Riley	Control	[14]
	Gemma Arterton	St Trinian's
	Saoirse Ronan	Atonement
	Shia LaBeouf	Transformers
	Thomas Turgoose	This Is England
2009 (14th)	Gemma Arterton		[15]
	Hayley Atwell
	Jim Sturgess
	Robert Pattinson
	Toby Kebbell

2010s

Year	Actor	Film	Ref.
2010 (15th)	Aaron Johnson	Nowhere Boy	[16][17]
	Anna Kendrick	The Twilight Saga: New Moon and Up in the Air
	Carey Mulligan	An Education
	Katie Jarvis	Fish Tank
	Sharlto Copley	District 9
2011 (16th)	Chloë Grace Moretz	Kick-Ass and Let Me In	[18]
	Gareth Edwards	Monsters
	Jaden Smith	The Karate Kid
	Jennifer Lawrence	Winter's Bone
	Mia Wasikowska	Alice in Wonderland

Gender and role superlatives

Role	Wins	Nominations
Male Directors	2	14 (+2)[lower-alpha 1]
Female Directors	0	2
Actors	8	26
Actresses	7	29
Groups	1	3[lower-alpha 2]

Notes

1. Twice a team of two directors have been nominated for the award.
2. The nominations for the cast of East Is East, The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring and Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone are counted as group nominations.

References

1. "Past Winners - 1996". Empireonline.com. Bauer Consumer Media. 2003. Retrieved October 20, 2011.
2. "Past Winners - 1997". Empireonline.com. Bauer Consumer Media. 2003. Retrieved October 20, 2011.
3. "Past Winners - 1998". Empireonline.com. Bauer Consumer Media. 2003. Retrieved October 20, 2011.
4. "Past Winners - 1999". Empireonline.com. Bauer Consumer Media. 2003. Retrieved October 20, 2011.
5. "Past Winners - 2000". Empireonline.com. Bauer Consumer Media. 2003. Retrieved October 20, 2011.
6. "Empire Awards 2001". Internet Movie Database. Retrieved October 14, 2011.
7. "Empire Awards 2002: Best Debut". Empire. Bauer Consumer Media (#154): 56. April 2002. Retrieved October 20, 2011.
8. "Best Newcomer". Empireonline.com. Bauer Consumer Media. 2003. Retrieved October 20, 2011.
9. "Best Newcomer". Empireonline.com. Bauer Consumer Media. 2004. Retrieved October 20, 2011.
10. "Best Newcomer". Empireonline.com. Bauer Consumer Media. 2005. Retrieved October 20, 2011.
11. "Best Newcomer". Empireonline.com. Bauer Consumer Media. 2006. Retrieved October 20, 2011.
12. "Best Male Newcomer". Empireonline.com. Bauer Consumer Media. 2007. Retrieved October 20, 2011.
13. "Best Female Newcomer". Empireonline.com. Bauer Consumer Media. 2007. Retrieved October 20, 2011.
14. "Best Newcomer". Empireonline.com. Bauer Consumer Media. 2008. Retrieved October 20, 2011.
15. "Best Newcomer". Empireonline.com. Bauer Consumer Media. 2009. Retrieved October 20, 2011.
16. "Best Newcomer". Empireonline.com. Bauer Consumer Media. 2010. Retrieved October 20, 2011.
17. Reynolds, Simon (February 25, 2010). "In Full: Empire Awards 2010 nominees". digitalspy.co.uk. Digital Spy. Retrieved October 21, 2011.
18. "Best Newcomer". Empireonline.com. Bauer Consumer Media. 2011. Retrieved October 20, 2011.

External links