Keisha Castle-Hughes

Just a few weeks before landing her big-screen debut, Keisha Castle-Hughes received some unsettling news. During a career fair at her school in Auckland, New Zealand, the 11-year-old had been told to put her acting dreams aside for a more ''realistic'' profession. ''I always said I wanted to be an actor and people were like, 'It's not going to happen. It's a great dream, but let's get real here.'''

It's a good thing that Diana Rowan felt differently. A veteran casting director who discovered Academy Award winner Anna Paquin (another Kiwi, who claimed the 1993 prize at age 11 for her performance in ''The Piano''), Rowan plucked the raven-haired Castle-Hughes for the starring role in director Niki Caro's empowering drama ''Whale Rider.''

As Pai, a Maori preteen who struggles to gain her grandfather's attention while courageously challenging her indigenous community's male-dominated traditions, Castle-Hughes delivers a heart-wrenching performance for the record books: She's the youngest Best Actress nominee ever, besting a 20-year-old Isabelle Adjani for 1975's ''The Story of Adele H.'' ''I identified with the fact that people weren't accepting [Pai] for who she was,'' explains Castle-Hughes, now 13. ''I've seen and felt that before.''

Actor Rawiri Paratene, who plays her grandfather in the indie hit, attributes his young costar's success to something beyond mere character recognition. ''She's got a lot of natural attributes that are very good for an actor,'' he says. ''It was no different working with Keisha than it would have been working with one of our experienced ladies of New Zealand.''

Now an actress of some experience herself, Castle-Hughes hopes to pursue roles that might take her even farther from home. ''I'd like to be able to tell our stories from New Zealand,'' she says, ''but it would be pretty amazing to work overseas.'' A trip down the red carpet seems like a good first step.