10. Brooklynn Prince

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In 2016 it was nine-year-old Jacob Tremblay (Room); in 2017 it was eight-year-old Sunny Pawar (Lion); and this year our much-needed dose of red-carpet cuteness comes courtesy of seven-year-old Brooklynn Prince, the tearaway child testing the adults’ wrangled nerves in The Florida Project. Rather than being thrust into the business by pushy stage-parents, Prince kick-started her own Hollywood career, commissioning headshots and sending them out to agencies as an infant. It is her naive perspective that anchors Baker’s film, culminating in a climax that has been aligned with François Truffaut’s New Wave masterpiece The 400 Blows. Prince – who has ambitions of becoming “the first kid director” – relished the opportunity to misbehave onscreen and was inordinately excited that she got to swear in the movie, telling the Guardian, “When I heard I was gonna say those bad words, I was like, ‘YeeeHAW!’” She has scooped up a string of breakthrough-acting prizes throughout awards season, including a gong at the distinguished Critics Choice Awards, and has three new movies on the horizon. Another Abigail Breslin in the making, perhaps?