The Marvels: 2023’s Biggest Breakout Film Stars

This past year gave moviegoers many memorable instances of our favorite movie stars doing what they do best. Think Keanu Reeves in John Wick 4, Tom Cruise is Mission: Impossible — Dead Reckoning, or Channing Tatum in Magic Mike's Last Dance. But, more importantly, 2023 introduced an exciting new group of budding stars.

From experienced actors getting their first front-and-center shot to complete newcomers, the big screen was filled with star-making performances worth celebrating. Here are the 10 most unforgettable.

Charles Melton

In a film that features award-worthy turns from two of our greatest actors, Julianne Moore and Natalie Portman, it's a Riverdale star who runs away with Todd Haynes' May December. Just as he wrapped his six-season stint on the bonkers CW drama, Charles Melton gives perhaps the most unexpected performance of the year as Joe Yoo, a 36-year-old husband and father now grappling with the fact that his relationship with his wife (Moore) began when he was 13 and she was 36.

The former model is objectively a beautiful man, and his Riverdale and Bad Boys for Life roles showcased a cocky charisma, but, for May December, he put on 40 pounds and channeled a quiet, repressed sadness. In a Best Supporting Actor race that once looked to be between A-listers like Robert Downey Jr. and Mark Ruffalo, Melton has charged to the front.

Andrew Barth Feldman

The raunchy, R-rated comedy No Hard Feelings was billed as Jennifer Lawrence's big comeback film, and while the Oscar-winner more than delivers, it's a young Broadway star who steals the show. The comedy's hilariously ridiculous premise introduces Lawrence as Maddie, a down-on-her-luck woman offered a used car by a pair of wealthy parents in exchange for her "dating" their introverted 19-year-old son, Percy, played by Barth Feldman.

When he booked the role, Feldman had to take a semester off from Harvard, and that proved to be a smart decision, as he more than hung with Lawrence, providing the exact right mode of comedic awkwardness. But his true standout scene is when Percy surprises Maddie with an impromptu performance of "Maneater." She's in awe, and so were we. Feldman better graduate quickly and get back to acting, or there will be a lot of hard feelings.

Greta Lee

Greta Lee has been steadily working in TV and film for the last decade, making memorable impressions with arcs on Girls, New Girl, Russian Doll, and The Morning Show, but she finally gets her leading lady moment in Past Lives — and will make you wonder why it took so long for someone to build a project around her. In the feature debut from writer-director Celine Song, Lee and Teo Yoo star as Nora and Hae, childhood friends who reunite in New York City as adults and ponder what could have been. Audiences, critics and other filmmakers have fallen in love with Lee's heartwarming (and breaking) performance. She's currently an Oscar contender and one of the leads of the next Tron movie.

Dominic Sessa

Alexander Payne's sleeper holiday hit The Holdovers is a three-hander starring Payne alum and beloved actor Paul Giamatti, possible Best Supporting Actress winner Da'Vine Joy Randolph and newcomer Dominic Sessa. The 21-year-old Sessa is the definition of a discovery — Payne cast him after the students at Sessa's prep school were invited to audition since The Holdovers was shooting on their campus.

In his film debut, Sessa plays Angus Tully, a smart but troubled teen left behind over the Christmas break with only a strict professor (Giamatti) and a grieving cook (Randolph). There hasn't been a more winning acting trio in 2023, and while his more veteran costars might soon bring home some hardware, Sessa is set for a promising career.

Iman Vellani

The headline of our review for The Marvels says it all: "Iman Vellani Is the Star the MCU Desperately Needs." The most recent release from Marvel is on its way to becoming the lowest-grossing film in the MCU's history, a fate that the fun and breezy Captain Marvel sequel doesn't deserve. Now, The Marvels isn't going to be carved into the superhero Mount Rushmore anytime soon, but, in reprising her role as Ms. Marvel (a.k.a. Kamala Khan) from the Disney+ series of the same name, Vellani is so incredibly charming and likable that she's earned her place as one of the faces of the future MCU.

Benny Safdie, the Actor

It's not fair when some people are great at everything, right? Well, throw Benny Safdie on that decorated list of annoyingly talented people. Working as a filmmaking duo with his brother Josh, Safdie's directing bonafides were already cemented with 2017's Good Time and 2019's Uncut Gems, but he's spent 2023 showing that he's also truly got the goods as an actor.

While Safdie gave a strong performance in Good Time opposite Robert Pattinson as a developmentally challenged bank robber, he's now branched off to acting in projects that he didn't direct. This year, Safdie demonstrated tremendous range between his radically different turns as supportive dad Herb in the adorable Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret, and Hungarian physicist Edward Teller in the juggernaut that is Oppenheimer, with Safdie being almost unrecognizable in the latter. At this rate, Adam Sandler might need to start worrying that Safdie will be the lead of the next Safdie brothers film.

Shamier Anderson

If you're going to add another dog-loving assassin into the John Wick Universe, then they better bring it — and Shamier Anderson does just that in John Wick: Chapter 4. The Wynonna Earp alum joined the franchise as the intriguing, nameless character known simply as "the Tracker." And with a Belgian Shepherd always by his side, the Tracker lives up to his reputation, constantly finding the usually-elusive Wick (Reeves), whom he ends up fighting against and then with, a daunting challenge... for most. "People ask me, was I scared, was I anxious," Anderson said. "For me, it was exciting and thrilling because, to be honest, I believe I was built for something like this." He wasn't wrong, considering the Tracker quickly became a fan-favorite, and as the fate of a fifth Wick remains up in the air, Anderson is ready to take the lead of a spin-off — and face-off with Meryl Streep.

Lily Gladstone

For the first time, Martin Scorsese directed a film with both of his two legendary muses, Robert De Niro and Leonardo DiCaprio, and yet, Killers of the Flower Moon is a showcase for the powerhouse that is Lily Gladstone. Scorsese and DiCaprio threw out their original plan for how to tell the true story of a string of 1920s killings that rocked the Osage Nation, instead opting to spotlight the marriage of Ernest (DiCaprio) and Mollie Burkhart (Gladstone). DiCaprio and De Niro are predictably great as an evil nephew and uncle tandem, but it's Gladstone who acts as Flower Moon's heart, both through joy and death.

“That an actor of such profound talent has found it a long and hard road to get this recognition speaks to the unfairness that still exists in our industry today,” DiCaprio recently said of Gladstone. “I fervently hope that we’re entering a new era in which actors like Lily, who embody this authenticity and undeniable truth in their own storytelling, take center stage."

Tom Blyth

The original Hunger Games film helped instantly make Jennifer Lawrence one of the biggest names in Hollywood, and the recent prequel, The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes, could do the same for its lead. "Tom Blyth is a star, I tell you, a star," The Messenger's Jordan Hoffman wrote in his review of Songbirds & Snakes.

Taking over the role of the villainous President Snow from Donald Sutherland, Blyth gives new shades to the character, portraying the 18-year-old Snow as a good person desperate to protect those he loves. But, by the end, Snow is transformed into something much darker, and Blyth more than believably lands the plane. After this, the Billy the Kid actor might become the Man.

M3GAN

Our true queen! The year started off with a bang thanks to the early January release of M3GAN, the latest big hit from master horror producers Jason Blum and James Wan. The film from writer Akela Cooper and director Gerald Johnstone was a perfect blend of camp and scares, but the real secret weapon proved to be the titular, murderous AI doll. No actor, character or robot had better comedic timing in 2023 than M3GAN, and we'll never forget those killer dance moves. Thankfully, 2025 is set to open with M3GAN 2.0, meaning she's now the face of a franchise baby!