The only award at the EE BAFTAs voted for by the British public
- The 2019 EE Rising Star Award nominees are: Jessie Buckley, Cynthia Erivo, Barry Keoghan, Lakeith Stanfield and Letitia Wright
- This year’s nominees were selected by a respected group of jurors including actors Rosamund Pike, Richard Madden, Ray Panthaki and film broadcaster Edith Bowman
- The winner will be announced on Sunday 10th February 2019 at the EE British Academy Film Awards ceremony
- Voting is now open to the public at ee.co.uk/BAFTA
Thursday 3rd January 2019, London: Today, the five nominees for this year’s prestigious EE Rising Star Award were announced at BAFTA’s headquarters, 195 Piccadilly in London.
Revealed by Chief Executive Amanda Berry and film broadcaster Edith Bowman, the nominees consist of five actors and actresses who have each shown truly outstanding talent on the big screen in the past year and captured the imagination of both the public and film industry.
The EE Rising Star Award nominees for 2019 are:
JESSIE BUCKLEY has established herself as a true talent of stage and screen since playing Anne Egermann in the West End revival of Stephen Sondheim’s A Little Night Music. Playing the role of Moll in Beast saw Jessie give a critically acclaimed performance, with critics praising her for bringing a fresh, frank, feminine perspective to her leading performance. The film was launched to wide acclaim at last year’s Toronto International Film Festival. At this year’s film festival, Jessie’s most recent project, Wild Rose, was premiered, in which Jessie plays a Glaswegian musician who dreams of becoming a Nashville star. The film concluded to a standing ovation and is due to be released in April 2019. Jessie was named a BAFTA Breakthrough Brit in 2017.
CYNTHIA ERIVO is a Tony, Emmy, and Grammy Award-winning actress, best known for her stunning performance as Celie in the 2015 Broadway revival of The Color Purple. This year, Erivo has starred in both Drew Goddard’s Bad Times at the El Royale alongside Jeff Bridges, Chris Hemsworth, and Jon Hamm as well as in Steve McQueen’s Widows alongside Viola Davis, Michelle Rodriguez, and Elizabeth Debicki. In 2019, Erivo will be seen starring alongside Daisy Ridley and David Oyelowo in in the highly anticipated sci-fi thriller, Chaos Walking, from director Doug Liman and John Ridley’s Needle in a Timestack alongside Orlando Bloom, Freida Pinto, and Leslie Odom Jr.
BARRY KEOGHAN first received widespread critical acclaim as one of the breakout stars of Sundance 2016 for his performance in Rebecca Daly’s Mammal and was named as one of Screen International’s Stars of Tomorrow in 2015. Since then, Barry has received praise for his work as Boy opposite Colin Farrell and Nicole Kidman in Yorgas Lanthimos’ The Killing Of A Sacred Deer, as part of Christopher Nolan’s stellar ensemble in Dunkirk and, most recently, in Bart Layton’s American Animals – for which he was nominated for a Best Supporting Actor BIFA in 2018.
LAKEITH STANFIELD is currently starring in Boots Riley’s hit debut, Sorry To Bother You where he was praised for his role as Cassius Green. He also received widespread acclaim for the lead role in Crown Heights, about the wrongful conviction of prisoner Colin Warner. The film then went on to win the Audience Award at the 2017 Sundance Film Festival. Stanfield has also starred in Jordan Peele’s cult hit Get Out, alongside 2018 EE Rising Star Award winner Daniel Kaluuya and, in the Netflix original film War Machine, alongside Brad Pitt. On the small screen, he has also received critical acclaim for his role as Darius in Donald Glover’s series Atlanta on FX.
LETITIA WRIGHT gained worldwide attention for her role as Shuri in Marvel’s ground-breaking film Black Panther. She reprised her role in Avengers: Infinity War. In 2017, she starred in Netflix’s Black Mirror for which she was nominated for an Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in A Limited Series or Movie. Wright currently stars in The Convert at The Young Vic Theatre in London. Next up, she is set to join 2016 EE Rising Star Award winner John Boyega in the Mike Cahill-directed adaptation of Hold Back The Stars and a reboot of the French hit film, Le Brio.
This year the EE Rising Star jury panel, who were tasked with selecting the five nominees from a vast list of upcoming talented actors and actresses, included jury chair and co-president of Cornerstone Films Alison Thompson, actress Rosamund Pike, actor Richard Madden, BAFTA Breakthrough Brit Ray Panthaki, film broadcaster Edith Bowman, film critic Anna Smith, producer Georgina Lowe, casting directors Leo Davis and Lucy Bevan and other leading industry specialists and entertainment journalists.
2019 celebrates the 14th year of the EE Rising Star Award, the only award at the EE British Academy Film Awards voted for by the British public. Voting is now open at ee.co.uk/BAFTA and the winner will be announced at the EE British Academy Film Awards on Sunday 10 February 2019.