BAFTA Nominations 2016: EE Rising Star Award
Award season is coming, and with it, the winner of the BAFTA Rising Star award – who will be a racing certainty for future glory.
When it comes to awards, the BAFTA Rising Star is one of the most exciting and meaningful, recognising as it does emerging talent from the perspective of those that matter – the audiences. The EE Rising Star Award celebrates those ridiculously talented whippersnappers that have enlivened the past cinematic year who have displayed exceptional talent and ambition.
Past recipients include the likes of Jack O'Connell, Kristen Stewart and James McAvoy, and today saw the nominees of the prestigious award as voted for by the public: a list of precocious young performers who are likely to become the next generation of big hitters.
BAFTA nominations 2016:
Bel Powley, Diary of a Teenage Girl
All nominees have appeared in successful combinations of indie gems and big budget blockbusters. It’s no surprise then that Britain’s own Taron Egerton heads up the list, who starred in three huge hits of last year: Kingsman: The Secret Service, Testament of Youth, and Kray twins biopic Legend. He's joined by Bel Powley, whose empowering and comically brilliant performance in last year's Diary of a Teenage Girl tugged on our heartstrings.
Following Powley comes American trailblazer Dakota Johnson, who many will remember from her turn in Fifty Shades of Grey, but also took a starring role as Bulger's long suffering girlfriend in Black Mass and will soon be seen alongside Ralph Fiennes and Tilda Swinton in the latest stunning offering from Luca Guadagnino, a heady remake of La Piscine entitled A Bigger Splash.
Dakota Johnson, A Bigger Splash
Fellow nominee Brie Larson has seen a similar lightening-speed ascent, originally co-starring in 2013's Sundance hit The Spectacular Now, a refreshingly honest coming-of-age drama from director James Ponsoldt. She has since been catapulted into stardom as teen heroine in 21 Jump Street alongside Channing Tatum and Jonah Hill, whilst she will soon be bringing her Oscar-worthy performance to UK screens in Lenny Abrahamson's upcoming drama, Room.
Rounding off the nominations is Star Wars: The Force Awakens' British actor John Boyega, who also took a turn in 2011's Attack the Block, Joe Cornish's sci-fi comedy film in which he starred alongside British comedian Nick Frost.
Unifying the superlative starts of these young actors' careers, is that no success – critical or commercial – has inspired a placated shrug of 'I've made it'. All five will surely continue to surprise and compel audiences, whilst the BAFTA will provide the EE rising star award winner with yet another benchmark to surpass.
The winner will be announced at the EE British Academy Film Awards ceremony on Sunday 14 February 2016. Stephen Fry will cement his position as Britain's most in-demand fantasy uncle as he guides the gilded and the gorgeous through the 2016 BAFTA awards ceremony.
