Furthermore, this led her to gain a nomination of Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Supporting Role at Screen Actors Guild Awards in 2002. It created sensation for the eight-years-old actress became the youngest person to obtain such achievement.

This early attainment undoubtedly boosted Dakota's career as she was involved in more film projects in 2002. She appeared in “Trapped”, alongside Charlize Theron and Kevin Bacon, then starred in a romantic comedy movie, “Sweet Home Alabama” which was one of the box-office hits of the year. Her star shone more radiantly when she was included in the cast of “Taken,” a TV mini-series created by the prominent director of Hollywood, Steven Spielberg. She afterwards showed up in “The Cat in the Hat” and “Uptown Girls” in the following year. Brittany Murphy, her co-star in the latter one, genuinely gave a high praise toward her. “…Extremely wise, and so bright, sharp, and intelligent. She's just one of the greatest, most balanced, grounded humans I've ever met in my entire life.”

Dakota once more received critical acclaim for her role in Tony Scott's “Man on Fire” (2004). She made an excellent performance as Pita Ramos, a rich girl who is abducted and later is saved by a retired assassin worked as her bodyguard played by Denzel Washington. She continued to exhibit her top-notch acting consistently in “Hide and Seek” (2005) as well as in the summer blockbuster movie of Spielberg entitled “War of the Worlds” (2005). Her other film projects in 2005 were "Nine Lives" and “Dreamer: Inspired by a True Story,” together with Kurt Russell, Elisabeth Shue, and Kris Kristofferson. Still in the same year, she also contributed her sweet voice to direct-to-video feature “Lilo & Stitch 2: Stitch Has a Glitch” followed by “My Neighbor Totoro”, a 1988 Japanese animated feature released in U.S. on DVD in March 2006 by Disney.

Getting extremely busy with her activities in acting does not cause Dakota abandoned her study. Being home-schooled, she always has her tutor around in all the film sets she starred so that she could learn everything she needs to know. “Acting is what I love to do,” she commented. “I wouldn't trade it for the world. I don't think of it as work. It's really fun for me. And home-schooling works out perfectly.” Fixed on this decision, the girl cheerfully kept moving on to maintain her path in the show business, appearing in “Charlotte's Web” (2006) then “Hounddog” (2007), which ignited a spark of controversy due to a scene depicting her character gets raped. Nevertheless, she went unaffected to afterwards star in “Winged Creatures” (2008), “Hurricane Mary” (2008), and “The Secret Life of Bees” (2009) while once again lending her voice, this time to Focus Features' animated flick “Coraline.”

Filmography

2012 : If I Stay
2012 : The Twilight Saga's Breaking Dawn Part II
2010 : The Twilight Saga's Eclipse
2010 : Betsy and the Emperor
2010 : The Runaways
2009 : Coraline
2009 : Fragments
2009 : The Twilight Saga's New Moon
2008 : The Secret Life of Bees
2008 : Push
2007 : The Secret Life of Bees
2006 : Charlotte's Web
2005 : Lilo & Stitch 2: Stitch Has a Glitch