2010 is off to a good start for many, and we want to keep that momentum going for you. As we continue into the year and welcome all the changes that are destined for us, we bring you our second installment of some of latest creative influences and rebels who’s names will be household come the end of this year. Check out our list and pay close attention because we want to be the ones to say, “We told you so!”… again.

Kyle Patrick Alvarez

by Daniel Quitério

Photo Credit: LIFE

When Film Independent nominates someone for the Someone to Watch Award, it’s hard not to take notice. With his debut feature, Easier with Practice, new filmmaker Kyle Patrick Alvarez made an impression in the indie film scene in 2009, winning awards at festivals and earning two Spirit Award nominations, the aforementioned Someone to Watch Award and Best First Feature. (He won the Someone to Watch Award.)

The film, which Alvarez both wrote and directed, was inspired by a 2006 GQ article by Davy Rothbart, entitled “What Are You Wearing?” Easier with Practice is about a writer (played by Brian Geraghty of The Hurt Locker) who travels with his brother on a tour to promote his unpublished novel. While on the road, he receives a mysterious phone call in his motel room. The seductive female voice on the line asks him what he’s wearing …

In exploring this subject matter, Alvarez made a point of debunking the stereotypes often reinforced by the media that men are sexually overpowering creatures. He said, “I think the male ego is a tricky thing and one that is normally dealt with superficially in modern media. In general, men are not portrayed as emotionally weak or uncertain, especially in regards to their sexuality.” At just 26 years of age, Alvarez has had a great start to his filmmaking career. Expect more in the years ahead.

Tom Ford

by Daniel Quitério

A non-fashionista, myself, I think I had only heard of the name Tom Ford before seeing A Single Man. And after watching the film, I vowed that I’d never forget it.

The 48-year-old rose to fame in the fashion world while working for Gucci, transforming its faltering image and profits of the early ’90s into the global powerhouse it is today. Born in Austin, Texas and raised in Santa Fe, New Mexico, Ford moved to New York City to study art history at New York University. After a time, the future designer decided to leave NYU in order to pursue an education in architecture at New York’s Parsons School for Design. He studied at both the New York and Paris campuses and ultimately decided to pursue a career in fashion. After a two-year stint working for Perry Ellis, Ford moved to Milan to work for Gucci, a then sinking ship. With a clear vision, Ford was able to transform the fashion house into one of the industry’s most powerful and influential brands. In 2004, Ford left Gucci and founded his own fashion house.

Despite his background, Ford was interested in film and decided to take a crack at a feature. He had read the Christopher Isherwood novel A Single Man earlier in his life and found it moving enough that he felt it was the right project for him. After purchasing the rights to the book, he began work on the screenplay. The story focuses on George (played by Colin Firth), a college professor struggling with life after the passing of his long-time partner. Throughout the film, Ford’s appreciation of style and art is evident, as every element-the sets, the costumes, the music, the cinematography-all seamlessly mingle together to produce a master-class production that resembles an effort made by a veteran filmmaker. Although the film is Ford’s debut, his instincts are sharp, proving that regardless of your creative background, creativity is creativity. Period. Audiences and critics recognized Ford’s polished talent, and he was awarded the Queer Lion at the Venice Film Festival and two Spirit Award nominations, for Best First Feature and Best First Screenplay. He also directed veteran actor Firth to his first Oscar nomination.

Ben Foster

by Stephanie Dawson

Photo by Matthew Simmons/WireImage.com

Audiences have taken notice of Ben Foster after his performance as Staff Sergeant Will Montgomery in The Messenger (2009), but he may have been born to act. As a youngster in his hometown of Fairfield, Iowa, he starred in a community production of You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown. He followed the performance with a starring role in a play he wrote and directed at age 12. After attending the Interlochen Theater Arts Summer program, he dropped out of high school to pursue acting full time and he’s been working ever since.

His first role was in the television series Flash Forward. His film career began with the thriller Kounterfeit(1997). He then had roles in various made-for-television films, including I’ve Been Waiting for You (1998), and Breakfast with Einstein (1998). He raised eyebrows for his performance as Eli, the mentally challenged teen on TV comedy Freaks and Geeks. He’s proven himself able to handle meaty roles like Ben Kurtzman, a Jewish boy dating an African American woman in the 1950s-set drama Liberty Heights (1999). Don’t pigeon-hole him – his chops are versatile, as proven in the musical Get Over It (2001). In the last few years, Foster has made appearances in blockbusters and indie favorites alike, including Hostage (2005), X-Men: The Last Stand (2006), Alpha Dog (2006), 3:10 to Yuma (2007), 30 Days of Night (2007), and Pandorum (2009).

His performance in The Messenger displayed the nuance of strength mixed with vulnerability that makes characters memorable. As a soldier reassigned to the Army’s Casualty Notification service after his own tour in Iraq, Foster’s character has the dual challenge of dealing with his own emotional transition out of harm’s way while trying to dispassionately deliver news of fallen soldiers to their families. The role was part troubled man trying to find his own way, part romantic lead, and all beautifully performed. We look forward to what is most certainly a bright future for this young actor.

Zoe Kazan

by Janice Perez

Top billing for a movie titled The Exploding Girl will surely draw curious glances, but then again, Zoe Kazan’s already got the appellation to turn heads around. The last name, indeed, is an attention-grabber. Being born into the progeny of the legendary actor and film and stage director, Elia Kazan, Zoe is already showing noteworthy acting chops of her own at a young age. In 2009, alone, Zoe starred in a slew of indie and mainstream films, including Me and Orson Welles, The Private Lives of Pippa Lee, I Hate Valentine’s Day, and It’s Complicated, in which she played the youngest daughter of the characters played by Meryl Streep and Alec Baldwin. Her outstanding performance in Bradley Rust Gray’s The Exploding Girl, which premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival last year, was Kazan’s first lead role in a film. For her efforts, she was awarded the Best Actress award at the festival.

Despite her young film career, the Yale graduate has already been acting on stage, beginning with an eye-catching performance opposite Cynthia Nixon in 2006’s off-Broadway revival of The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie. Kazan has also penned her own play, Absalom, which premiered at the Humana Festival of New American Playwrights in Louisville, Kentucky. With her own talent on the rise, Kazan is sure to live up to her family’s name.

Christian McKay

by Janice Perez

Photo Credit: Liam Daniel

It’s a shame that this English thespian, who made a splash with his second film, wasn’t among the Best Actor nominees at this year’s Academy Awards. Christian McKay’s onscreen portrayal of the film, radio, and theatre behemoth Orson Welles was so thunderous that critics have maintained how he “stole the show” from the much larger screen actor Zac Efron, who headlined the film. Linklater flew to New York in the fall of 2008, where he witnessed McKay’s portrayal of Welles in the off-Broadway one-man show Rosebud: The Lives of Orson Welles. The actor’s emulation of Welles’s facial expressions and bodily movements were so spot-on that Linklater flew him right away to Austin for screen tests. Months later, production for Me and Orson Welles was underway after Linklater successfully won over producers who wanted to cast a more popular actor over McKay, whose oeuvre comprised more stage work than film. Thanks to his riveting portrayal of one of history’s greatest artists, McKay’s filmography will now include an M16 spook and a Woody Allen picture in the near future.

Anthony Mackie

by Stephanie Dawson

Photo Credit: Complex

Anthony Mackie didn’t exactly burst onto the scene, but not for lack of good performances. Early in his career, he landed fairly substantial roles for a newcomer. He played Eminem’s rival in 8 Mile (2002) and scored roles opposite Robert De Niro in Hollywood Homicide (2003) and Ryan Gosling in Half Nelson (2006). His first starring role, in Brother to Brother (2004), earned him a Spirit Award nomination. In the film, he played a gifted young artist dealing with a world that doesn’t accept his being black and gay. He soon followed with a starring role in Spike Lee’s She Hate Me (2004) as a former executive who pursues fathering children for lesbian couples for profit. These roles did not garner much attention, but this year lights are starting to shine a little brighter on Mackie. The cast of the critically acclaimed The Hurt Locker (2009) won the Gotham Award for Best Ensemble Performance and Mackie was nominated for another Spirit Award.

Anthony Mackie was born in New Orleans and pursued drama arts at an early age. He attended the New Orleans Center for Creative Arts and went on to study at the North Carolina School for the Arts. Later, he graduated from the Juilliard School where he, no doubt, gained acting chops that stand up against Hollywood’s finest. He’s performed opposite Ellen Barken and Ossie Davis in the aforementioned She Hate Me and Clint Eastwood and Morgan Freeman in Million Dollar Baby (2004). Mackie transitions seamlessly back and forth from the stage to the screen. He starred in several August Wilson plays including Fences and Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom in 2008, and soon can be seen alongside Christopher Walken in A Behanding in Spokane on Broadway.

Smaller films have allowed Mackie to hone his craft, but the larger public will soon know Anthony Mackie as he takes on larger roles in higher profile projects. No doubt, the nine Oscar nominations for The Hurt Locker will aid in introducing him to mainstream audiences. He’s definitely one to watch in the coming years.

Chris Messina

by Daniel Quitério

Have you ever had that experience sitting in a theatre and realizing that the guy on the screen is the same guy you’ve recently seen in several other movies, and yet you have no idea what his name is? In 2009, that guy for me was Chris Messina. The talented actor has been around for awhile, but I’d posit that last year was really a watershed year for him, having appeared in such films as Away We Go and Julie & Julia. In the former, he was directed by Oscar-winning filmmaker Sam Mendes. In the latter, he acted opposite critical darling Amy Adams in one of the best-received films of the year. He must be doing something right.

Though never a film’s front-man, the 35-year-old New York native holds his own among some of Hollywood’s heavyweights, establishing his place in some of today’s most highly regarded pictures, as he did in the 2008 Woody Allen vehicle Vicky Cristina Barcelona. Having worked on such series as Law & Order and Six Feet Under, it wasn’t too long before Messina grabbed Hollywood’s attention, being named of the of the “Ten Actors to Watch” by Daily Variety in 2007. In 2010, he will appear alongside Ben Stiller in the anticipated Noah Baumbach film Greenberg.

Mia Wasikowska

by Daniel Quitério

There was a time when British bands were “invading” the United States, influencing and challenging our own culture. That was then. Now, it’s not the music. It’s acting. And it’s not the Brits. It’s the Australians. Kidman. Crowe. Jackman. Watts. And Wasikowska.

Canberra, Australia native Mia Wasikowska (pronounced vash-i-kov-ska) is only 20 years old, but she’s about to make a big splash in American cinema. After performing in some Australian series and films, the young actress made the successful transition to Hollywood, starting with a part in the acclaimed HBO series In Treatment.

Wasikowska’s foray into the arts didn’t begin with acting, though. The daughter of Polish and Australian artists, Wasikowska seriously trained to be a ballerina in her youth, but ultimately turned away from it and focused on a different kind of performing. For a February 2010 W Magazine interview, the actress compared ballet with film. She said, “The thing I took issue with was having to have the perfect body [in ballet]. There wasn’t any room for fault or imperfection. Film is a lot more about life, and so it’s all about the things we do that are imperfect. That really interested me more.”

In 2008, Variety listed the ballerina-turned-actress as one of the Top Ten Actors to Watch, following her supporting role in the World War II-era drama Defiance. From there, she took on supporting roles in the Amelia Earhart biopic Amelia (2009) and the independent film That Evening Sun (2009) (for which she received a Best Supporting Female Spirit Award nomination). Her upcoming projects include a part in The Kids Are All Right, acting opposite Oscar nominees Annette Benning and Julianne Moore; an untitled Gus Van Sant film; and playing the title character in Jane Eyre, by Sin Nombre director Cary Fukunaga.

Perhaps her biggest role is the lead in Tim Burton’s re-imagining of the classic children’s tale Alice in Wonderland. In Burton’s version, 19-year-old Alice finds her way back to Wonderland, attempting to end the Red Queen’s menacing reign. The film is in theatres now.

>>Check out our 2009 Faces to Watch and let us know if we are good psychics. Part 1 and Part 2