The independent film breakout stars of 2012

By Mark Olsen, Los Angeles Times

Jan. 3, 2013 12 AM PT

Independent filmmaking often acts as a farm team of sorts for Hollywood, a showcase for performers and filmmakers who go on to bigger, if not always necessarily better, things.

The following is a look at some of the people — and some of the films — that made a splash in the indie waters in 2012 that are likely to have a ripple effect in Hollywood. As a writer and critic with a focus on independent cinema, it’s gratifying to watch emerging talents as they make their way into the mainstream.

GRAPHIC: Faces to watch 2013

Here are a few names and films to keep on your radar:

Emayatzy Corinealdi

In writer-director Ava DuVernay’s vibrant, rich “Middle of Nowhere,” 32-year-old actress Emayatzy Corinealdi (pronounced Emma-yahtzee Core-naldee) brings to life the film’s emotional center often without doing much at all. Her ability to convey inner feelings while just riding a bus or staring out a window is testament to the quiet strength of her performance. Playing a woman who puts her life on hold while waiting for her husband to finish out a prison term, Corinealdi captures a mix of conflict, confusion and self-discovery, holding it all together with a sense of understated resolve.

What’s next: Corinealdi won a Gotham Award for her “Middle of Nowhere” performance and has been nominated for an Independent Spirit Award and an NAACP Image Award, with a few more roles in smaller films already on the way.

Ezra Miller

In 2011’s “We Need to Talk About Kevin,” Ezra Miller was an intensely ferocious little monster, which made the wide-open, free-spirited exuberance, albeit touched by sadness, of his performance in “The Perks of Being a Wallflower” that much more of a surprise. Only 20, Miller has a compulsively watchable presence and draws from a deep core of emotion on screen, as well as a lovably kooky persona in media appearances. Hollywood could use more unpredictable live wires like him, both on screen and off.

What’s next: Miller is due to appear alongside Mia Wasikowska and Paul Giamatti in an adaptation of “Madame Bovary.”

Mark Duplass

As an actor, writer, director and producer, 36-year-old Mark Duplass has fashioned himself into a newfangled DIY impresario, with his name as actor and producer on some of the freshest films of 2012, including “Your Sister’s Sister” and “Safety Not Guaranteed.” He also had a small, but key, part in “Zero Dark Thirty” and an ongoing role on FX’s “The League.” On top of that, he saw the release of two films co-directed with his bother Jay, “Jeff, Who Lives at Home” and “The Do-Deca-Pentathlon” and also collaborated on “Black Rock,” a horror film directed by his wife, Katie Aselton. Across all these projects, Duplass brings a shaggy, open-hearted sincerity both in front of and behind the camera.

What’s next: Duplass, along with brother Jay, recently began a recurring role on TV’s “The Mindy Project.” The duo also have a number of writing, directing and producing projects in the works, including a remake of “Same Time, Next Year.”

The actress-writer

It can be difficult for younger actresses to find parts that aren’t bimbos or second-fiddle significant others, so an increasing number are simply writing their own roles. Both “Ruby Sparks,” written by its star Zoe Kazan, and “Celeste and Jesse Forever,” co-written by star Rashida Jones, explicitly took on the conventions of the romantic comedy to reinvent the world for their female leads. Brit Marling, among the vanguard of the actress-writer wave, will be back at Sundance starring in her co-written “The East.” Greta Gerwig stars in the upcoming “Frances Ha,” which she co-wrote with director Noah Baumbach and is being released later this year.

What’s next: Kazan recently shot four more feature acting roles. Jones has continued to appear on TV’s “Parks and Recreation.” Their screenplays for “Ruby Sparks” and “Celeste and Jesse Forever” each received an Independent Spirit Award nomination.

Child performers

In 2012, any number of performances by underage actors moved well beyond stereotypical cute-kid mugging. Jared Gilman and Kara Hayward in “Moonrise Kingdom,” Quvenzhané Wallis from “Beasts of the Southern Wild” and Pierce Gagnon in “Looper” all seemed wise well beyond their years. Kacey Mottet Klein brought gravity to the Swiss film “Sister.”

What’s next: Wallis has been in the thick of awards season conversations. Hayward is set to film a role in the upcoming “The Sisterhood Of Night.”

Chilean films

There is often a national cinema that seems to percolate up from the festival circuit to exhibit a fresh new sensibility. In years past, Romania, Iran, South Korea and Argentina have been frequent faves. Now there’s an abundance of exciting films from Chile, including Pablo Larrain’s “No,” Cristián Jiménez’s “Bonsái,” Marialy Rivas’ “Young & Wild” and Dominga Sotomayor’s “Thursday Till Sunday.” All of these films meld personal politics with broader societal forces. In stepping out from the long shadow of Chile’s dictatorship era, the work of these filmmakers is infused with a sense of freedom and renewal.

What’s next: “No,” Chile’s submission for the Academy Awards, will be released later this spring. Chilean filmmaker Sebastian Silva has two films premiering at the upcoming Sundance Film Festival.

Bart Layton

One of the most exciting developments in nonfiction filmmaking over the last few years — check that, make it one of the most exciting developments in filmmaking, period — has been the rise of the hybrid documentary. These films blend fact and fiction to turn audience expectations inside-out while working with a thrillingly modern notion of how truth is constructed. Bart Layton’s “The Imposter” mixes investigation, re-creation and likely outright lies.

What’s next: Layton hasn’t announced his next feature project yet, but continues to work as creative director at the U.K.-based production company Raw.

Craig Zobel

“Compliance” marked a bold step forward for writer-director Craig Zobel, and felt like payoff for anyone who makes a habit of following talent from early, formative works to completely realized films. Zobel’s debut feature, 2007’s “Great World of Sound,” showed him to be a thoughtful talent with a brassy bent toward unnerving provocation, and “Compliance” pushes even further into that territory. The film is a tense exploration of the fault-line power dynamics of gender and class, marking Zobel as a filmmaker capable of mining insight from discomfiting situations.

What’s next: Zobel is a producer on David Gordon Green’s upcoming “Prince Avalanche” and is also set to direct Tobey Maguire in “Z for Zachariah.”

mark.olsen@latimes.com