Nominees for the 2019 British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) award winners, honouring the best big-screen filmmaking of the year, won’t be announced until 9 January. But BAFTA has provided a tantalising taste of their choices today with the presentation of the nominees of the annual EE Rising Star Award.
The coveted prize, sponsored by mobile and internet provider EE, recognises young, up-and-coming movie or TV stars making a name for themselves. Per BAFTA’s site, the award “honours a young actor or actress who has demonstrated exceptional talent and ambition and has begun to capture the imagination of the British public.” Each year five nominees are chosen by BAFTA juries, but the winner is chosen entirely by public voting.
Up for the 2019 award are Jessie Buckley, Cynthia Erivo, Barry Keoghan, Lakeith Stanfield, and Letitia Wright. All starred in notable 2018 films: Buckley in Beast, Erivo in Bad Times at the El Royale and Widows, Keoghan in American Animals, Stanfield in Sorry to Bother You, and Wright in 2018’s two biggest hits, Black Panther and Avengers: Infinity War.
Last year’s BAFTA film awards crowned Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri and rising star Daniel Kaluuya, among others. The ceremony is regarded as the UK’s equivalent to the Oscars, with a similar membership size to the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences—around 7,500 voters. The 2019 EE British Academy Film Awards will take place on 10 February. To vote on the rising star of your choice, visit ee.co.uk/BAFTA.
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