Young Artist Award for Best Leading Young Actor in a Feature Film

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Tom Holland, The Impossible (2012)
Website	http://www.youngartistawards.org

The Young Artist Award for Best Performance by a Leading Young Actor in a Feature Film is one of the

Throughout the history of the award, the "Best Young Actor in a Feature Film" category has been "split" several times. Until the 3rd Youth in Film Awards ceremony (1981), nominations for the "Best Young Actor in a Feature Film" award included all actors, regardless of whether the performance could be perceived to be in either a leading or supporting role.^[12] At the 4th Youth in Film Awards ceremony (1982), however, the "Best Supporting Young Actor in a Feature Film" category (not listed on this page) was specifically introduced as a separate award.^[13]

In the late 1980s, the category was split for three ceremonies; the

Beginning with the 14th Youth in Film Awards, the association once again split the category, this time creating a new category to recognize young film actors age 10 and under in their own separate category.^[19] The "Best Young Actor Age 10 and Under in a Feature Film" category (not listed on this page) would become a permanent fixture of the Young Artist Awards and, as of 2012, is still awarded annually.^[20] Despite the creation of the "10 and Under" category, some "leading" young actors under the age of 10 have continued to be nominated as "Best Leading Young Actor in a Feature Film".^[16]

Although today the Young Artist Association has strict age requirements regarding which nominees are eligible for a Young Artist Award nomination, the association did not originally have such specific age restrictions. Today, candidates eligible for a Young Artist Award nomination must be between the ages of 5 and 21 at the time of principal production of the project for which they are nominated.^[4] However, the eldest winner of the "Best Young Actor in a Feature Film" award is Dennis Christopher, who was 23 years old the night he won for his performance in Breaking Away at the 1st Youth in Film Awards ceremony (1979).^[10] The youngest winner of a "Best Leading Young Actor in a Feature Film" award is Mason Gamble, who was 8 years old the night he won for his performance in Dennis the Menace at the 15th Youth in Film Awards ceremony (1993).^[16]

The following list of superlatives is of winners/nominees in the "Best Leading Young Actor in a Feature Film" category. Wins/nominations in other Young Artist Award feature film categories, such as "Best Supporting Young Actor in a Feature Film", "Best Young Actor Age 10 and Under in a Feature Film", and "Best Leading Young Actor in an International Feature Film", are not included.

Superlative winners/nominees are listed alphabetically.

For the first twenty-three ceremonies, due to the numerous "Television" awards also presented by the Young Artist Association, the eligibility period spanned two calendar years to recognize the traditional television season.^[10][21] For example, the 1st Youth in Film Awards, presented in October 1979, recognized performers who appeared on television shows and in feature films that were released between September 1, 1978, and August 31, 1979. Starting with the 24th Young Artist Awards, presented in March 2003, the period of eligibility became the full previous calendar year, from January 1 to December 31, similar to the eligibility requirement used by the Academy Awards.^[22]

Following the Young Artist Association's practice, the films below are listed by year of their qualifying run, which is the year the film was released in the United States, and not by the date of the ceremony, which has traditionally taken place the following calendar year beginning with the 10th Youth in Film Awards ceremony which recognized performances during the 1987/1988 season and took place in 1989.

★ Winners are listed first and highlighted in gold, followed by the other nominees in the category for that year.

• Academy Juvenile Award
• Broadcast Film Critics Association Award for Best Young Performer
• Saturn Award for Best Performance by a Younger Actor
• Young Artist Award for Best Leading Young Actress in a Feature Film