Last year Will Poulter walked away with the coveted prize of the Bafta Rising Star Award and this year the competition looks to be fierce. The nominations are in for 2015’s Bafta Rising Star and they include; Unbroken’s Jack O’Connell, Whiplash’s Miles Teller, The Fault In Our Stars’ Shailene Woodley, The Wolf Of Wall Street’s Margot Robbie and Belle’s Gugu Mbatha-Raw.
All had huge years last year with O’Connell in particular drumming up award frenzy for his role in Angelina Jolie’s Unbroken, although for our money he was even better in gritty prison drama Starred Up. Robbie meanwhile proved she could go toe-to-toe with Leonardo DiCaprio in Martin Scorsese’s Wolf Of Wall Street and will be seen later this year opposite Will Smith in con-drama Focus. Gugu Mbatha-Raw gained rave reviews for Belle and will be seen later this year in Jupiter Ascending opposite Channing Tatum and Mila Kunis. But the favourites, given this award is voted for by the public, are likely to be Woodley and Teller both of whom are hugely popular having both starred in Divergent and The Spectacular Now.
The Rising Star Award always causes some confusion as many would argue that all the names on this list are already bonafide stars but recognising their increasing popularity in film is always an interesting exercise. The list was put together by a Bafta panel that included director Dexter Fletcher and actress Alice Eve.
You can vote for who you want to win by following this link https://explore.ee.co.uk/bafta with the winner being announced at the Bafta Awards on Sunday 8th February 2015.