BAFTA Rising Star Nominees

The BAFTA (British Academy Awards) won't announce their nominations until Wednesday, but have unveiled their nominees for the their Rising Star Award.  Past recipients have included Kristen Stewart, Juno Temple, James McAvoy and Eva Green.  The award is voted on by the public.  This years line-up is:

DANE DeHAAN- The 26-year-old American actor made his first impression on the HBO drama In Treatment and has had a great last few years in films like Chronicle, Lawless and Lincoln.  2013 notched up his breakthrough status even higher with acclaimed roles in The Place Beyond the Pines and most especially Kill Your Darlings, the Beat generation drama in which he was the easily the best thing about.  He also appeared in Metallica Through the Never and the Toronto Film Fest entry Devil's Knot, the feature film about the West Memphis Three directed by Atom Egoyan and co-starring Reese Witherspoon.  This year, he tackle his first tentpole in The Amazing Spider-man 2 playing Harry Osborn.

GEORGE MacKAY- 22-year-old British actor who made his screen debut in P.J. Hogan's 2003 revamp of Peter Pan and co-starred in The Boys Are Back (opposite Clive Owen) and Defiance (opposite Daniel Craig) and this past year co-starred in three movies, most notably How I Live Now directed by Kevin MacDonald (The Last King of Scotland) opposite Saoirse Ronan.  He will next appear in the films Pride and Bypass, which are scheduled for release some time this year.

LUPITA NYONG'O- The Mexican born, Kenyan-reared graduate of Yale Drama School is currently earning critics prizes galore, alongside Globe, SAG, Critics' Choice and Indie Spirit nominations for her galvanizing performance as Patsey in Steve McQueen's 12 Years a Slave, her film debut.  She will next appear in the film Non-Stop, a thriller starring Liam Neeson and Julianne Moore.  Interestingly, she started as production assistant on the film The Constant Gardener, which netted a Best Supporting Actress Academy Award for Rachel Weisz.

WILL POULTER- 21-year-old British actor who began with roles on British television shows and made his feature debut with 2010's The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader.  His big 2013 break came in his supporting role in the surprise summer sleeper We're the Millers opposite Jason Sudeikis and Jennifer Aniston-- he played the innocent teenage boy who had a memorably spider bite and was one of the film's brighter spots.  He's got a bunch of stuff in the pipeline including the enticing sounding human trafficking drama Glassland with Toni Collette.

LÉA SEYDOUX- 28-year-old French beauty, also known as the somewhat less heralded half of Blue is the Warmest Color.  Already pretty major in France, she made her English-language film debut with Ridley Scott's Robin Hood and was featured in plum supporting roles in films as varied as Midnight in Paris and Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol.  Already a co-winner from Blue is the Warmest Color's director/actress Palme D'Or prize at Cannes last spring, Seydoux looks to be one of the next major French/American crossovers, if she chooses so.  In March, she will have a supporting part in Wes Anderson's The Grand Budapest Hotel.