This year’s festival features performances by five of Hollywood’s hottest young actors
Kristen Stewart
The film: Camp X-Ray
The role: A young US soldier working as a guard at Guantanamo Bay, who begins to question her attitude and beliefs after befriending a detainee.
The buzz: It has been eight years since Stewart's breakthrough in the first Twilight movie, in a role that was something of a double-edged sword. It made the 24-year-old a star (and rich) but she took a lot of critical flak for her performance as the emotionally blank Bella. In recent years she's been quietly building a reputation as a serious actress – and this is said to be her best performance yet.
Adam Driver
The film: Hungry Hearts
The role: A New York father trying to cope with the bizarre behaviour of his troubled wife, which is putting their baby son at risk.
The buzz: Best known for his role as Adam Sackler in the HBO drama series Girls, with a supporting role in 2012's Lincoln and 2014's This is Where I Leave You, the 30-year-old Driver is one of the hottest young actors in the business. He turns in another powerful performance as a man torn between his devotion to his child and his love for his wife. Driver will soon be seen in Star Wars: Episode VII, in which he is believed to be playing the villain.
Miles Teller
The film: Whiplash
The role: A young jazz drummer at an exclusive music school is tortured by a perfectionist mentor, who uses extreme teaching methods.
The buzz: Teller, 27, has been mixing it up with roles in award-friendly fare such as The Spectacular Now alongside high-profile crowd-pleasers such as Divergent. The trend is continuing – Whiplash has picked up several film-festival gongs and is tipped as an Oscar contender, while Teller will also soon be seen as Reed Richards – aka Mr Fantastic – in Marvel's Fantastic Four reboot.
Andrew Garfield
The film: 99 Homes
The role: A desperate young father who struggles to reclaim the home from which his family was evicted by going to work for the greedy property broker who took it from them.
The buzz: He's in danger, perhaps, of being overshadowed by the web-slinging Marvel superhero he has played in two Spider-Man movies in the past two years – but as he showed with a subtle, scene-stealing performance in 2010's The Social Network, Garfield has ability in spades when the material rises above mediocre superhero shenanigans. And in American-Iranian director Ramin Bahrani's 99 Homes, he finally has a chance to really flex his acting muscles again.
Tom Hardy
The Film: The Drop
The role: A bartender at a bar in Brooklyn used by criminals to launder money finds himself at the centre of a botched robbery.
The buzz: The 37-year-old Englishman has been building an impressive body of work, including this year's at-the-wheel suspense drama Locke, as well as acclaimed films such as Lawless, Layer Cake and Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy. Crime drama The Drop arrives with very good word of mouth. The film also features the late James Gandolfini's final screen role.
lcairney@thenational.ae
