Oscar: The next generation

Ellen Page

Age: 20

Back story: The diminutive Canadian began acting at age 10, but she first garnered critical acclaim for her role in the controversial 2005 indie "Hard Candy."

Nominated for:

Actress ("Juno")

Noteworthy: "Juno" is arguably Page's lightest indie. She's played a murderous adolescent in "Hard Candy," a street urchin seduced by a nomadic cult in the Canadian release "Mouth to Mouth," a mentally ill girl wandering the streets naked in "The Tracey Fragments," and a brutalized victim in "An American Crime."