My choices for this year.
#1 Filip Garbacz for
Swinki. No single performance I saw last year impressed me more. Although I suspect I'm the only voter to have even
seen it, he did too well not to be number one in my book.
#2 Jimmy Bennett primarily for
Trucker. I have been impressed by Jimmy going all the way back to Daddy Day Care. His roles are getting more demanding and he is having no trouble keeping pace.
#3 Jacob Ottensten for
Lars og Peter . Nicolas raved about the performance when he saw it in Cannes. I was fortunate to catch this short film in a US festival this fall. Jacob did an amazing job and I hope someone gets him into feature films straight away.
#4 Matthew Knight. A guilty pleasure. Most of his movies aren't very good at all, but Matthew shines in them regardless. He would rank higher if he had a better agent.

#5 Matous Kratina for
Kdopak by se vlka bál (Who's Afraid of the Wolf). Matous was in a supporting role in this film, playing the best friend and trusted advisor to the lead character (Dorota Dedková). The chemistry between the two of them was amazing. The director said at our screening that Matous was actually cast first (he was too good to pass up) and Dorota was later cast because she was friends with Matous in real life. Matous was a real charmer, however the Czechs haven't had a legitimate boy star since Tomás Holý and I'm not expecting that to change. IMDB shows no new projects at present for him.
My problem in voting every year is that I have too many to choose from. If I were allowed more choices, I might have opted for one of these....
Eduardo Garé or Eduardo Espinilla in Cobardes
Styrbjörn Roald in Goda Rĺd
Niall Wright in James
Shane Curry in Kisses
Alex Ferris in The Light of Family Burnam
Karl Alexander Seidel in Lippels Traum
Tobias Lamberts in Morrison krijgt een zusje
Paul-André Brasseur in Ce qu'il faut pour vivre
Knox Sparks in Boy|Man
Janos Giuranna in Sommersonntag
Magnar Gustavsen in Varde
William Miller in Runaway
Teja and Shiva Varma in 7 Days in Slow Motion
Maxwell Perry Cotton in Like Dandelion Dust
John Bell in A Shine of Rainbows
Syed Fazal Hussain and Navaid Jabbar in Ramchand Pakistani