The nominees for the Orange Rising Star Award at this year's BAFTAs have been announced this morning in London, and it's another interesting mix of young talent. Carey Mulligan is probably the most talked-about contender, but she's joined by fellow nominees Nicholas Hoult, Jesse Eisenberg, Kristen Stewart and Tahar Rahim. Click on their names to cast your vote.
Mulligan made a splash with An Education last October, but also appears in Public Enemies and Brothers, and has a good Brit-flick CV that includes films like Pride & Prejudice.
Hoult is probably still best known for his turn in About A Boy years back, but this year was all grown up in A Single Man, opposite Colin Firth. Eisenberg, meanwhile, had the double-whammy of the mighty Zombieland against the sweeter indie-rom-com of Adventureland*. That also starred Kristen Stewart, but she's unquestionably best known at this point for her starring role in the Twilight saga, despite great turns in Into The Wild and Panic Room.
Finally, Tahar Rahim gave a blisteringly good performance in the much-praised French film A Prophet, the toast of Cannes and an apparent frontrunner for the Best Foreign Film Oscar this year.
"I've been doing things this year that I'd probably not been able to do if I haven't got this award," says last year's winner Noel Clarke. "Beforehand, I was probably that guy from Auf Wiedersehen Pet, then Doctor Who came out. But once I got this award I think it enabled people to come at me with films I wouldn't have had a sniff at before."
"The idea of being considered an actor who moght go on to big things is quite bizarre because I'm someone who has always seen myself as a jobbing actor, not particularly a rising star," says nominee Nicholas Hoult. "You look at the people in the category and quite a few of them are already movie stars in my opinion. It's very odd to be in there but it's a great privilege."
The award's in its fifth year: previous winners (in reverse chronological order) were Clarke, Shia LaBeouf, Eva Green and James McAvoy. The winner of this, the only BAFTA voted for by the public, will be announced at the British Academy Film Awards on February 21, and we'll be there to cover the whole thing. You can find out more about the award here.
*Rumour has it that he may one day star in a film that doesn't have the word "land" in the title, but we're not sure we believe that.