2. Timothée Chalamet

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Before the release of Call Me by Your Name nobody had heard of the French-American Timothée Chalamet. Fast-forward three months and the 22-year-old has scored an Academy Award nomination for Best Actor, becoming the youngest to be recognised in the category since 1944. To prepare for the role of a lifetime in Luca Guadagnino’s homosexual romance, Chalamet jetted off to Europe a month before the shoot to brush up his (already fluent) French, pick up Italian and learn guitar and piano. His performance as Elio, a bookish teenager coming to terms with his flourishing sexuality, is spellbinding. It will take you hours to piece yourself back together emotionally after the movie’s shattering denouement: a static camera honed in on Chalamet processing his overpowering feelings of loss.

The actor’s commitment to the character has paid off. He has dominated awards season, collecting accolades from the Gothams and critics groups in New York, LA, Boston, Chicago, Indiana and Florida (among others). Chalamet has also earned double nominations at the Baftas: for rising star and best actor, representing the only non-Brit in the latter category. And that’s only the start. Call Me by Your Name is just one of the three films the actor was promoting at the Toronto International Film Festival last autumn. He zings with deadpan humour as Saoirse Ronan’s “hella tight” boyfriend in Lady Bird and shines opposite Christian Bale in the gripping western Hostiles. This year he’s teaming up with Woody Allen for A Rainy Day in New York (and will be donating his salary to charity). It’s a good thing that what Chalamet struggles most with in life is sitting still because he is rushed off his feet right now.