Total Film headed down to BAFTA HQ this morning for the announcement of a brand new award: The Orange Rising Star Award will be presented in honour of infamous Brit casting director Mary Selway, who passed away in April 2004.
The gong replaces the Orange Film Of The Year Award as the only one of the ceremony to be voted for by the public.
The nominees were revealed as Motorcycle Diaries star Gael García Bernal, Kinky Boots and Serenity actor Chiwetel Ejiofor, James McAvoy from The Chronicles Of Narnia, Wedding Crashers actress Rachel McAdams and Brokeback Mountain star Michelle Williams.
“It’s a nice range of nominees,” said David Parfitt, BAFTA Film Chairman. “It’s also nice to be able to recognise Mary in this way. We wanted to do something to mark her contribution and this felt like the right thing to do.”
BAFTA want to emphasise the fact that the award is still very much one for the people. “The problem with the award as it was, the shortlist was basically the top ten grossing films of the year in the UK,” Parfitt continues. “So you’d get a list that was varied and interesting and perhaps unexpected but it still felt very random. We had no control over that at all, so at least in this way, by bringing a group of industry experts together you feel like there’s some sort of control.”
The winner will be announced at the BAFTA film awards bash on 19 February 2006.
If you would like to vote, click here to head over to Orange for more information.
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