Elizabeth Olsen and Alicia Vikander frontrunners for BAFTA Rising Star Award 2013

 

Unlike most years, this year doesn’t seem to have a frontrunner.  In 2011, Tom Hardy was pretty much a slam dunk for ‘The Dark Knight Rises’, the year before that Kristen Stewart had the award in the bag as soon as she got nominated.  However, every nominee this year has a strong resume but don’t yet have strong fan followings.  Suraj Sharma is new to the scene, with ‘Life of Pi’ being his debut film.  He doesn’t have anything lined up right now, but a passionate fan base for the movie could get him enough votes to swing by.  Juno Temple has a large resume but she hasn’t had a standout role in blockbusters, but she has devoted fans that follow her pretty consistently.  Andrea Riseborough has been working in theater and television for a while, but her name doesn’t carry much world in the film world yet – even though will likely change with Tom Cruise’s ‘Oblivion’.  

 

Out of all the actors and actresses, I would bet either Elizabeth Olsen or Alicia Vikander to win the award.  A couple of reasons – both have been linked to extremely high profile projects in the last couple of months, both are likely to break out with a blockbuster film in the next few years [indeed, Vikander’s name has already been linked to the Mark Romanek Cinderalla project, and Olsen has ‘Oldboy’ lined up], and both are critically acclaimed actresses that have also started gaining mainstream attention with fans and the public this year.  And since the BAFTA Rising Star award is voted by the public, it’s more likely that it will go to someone that the public knows.  Of course, Sharma, Riseborough, and Temple all have a strong chance of sneaking in, but we won’t find out until the award’s announced on February 10th.  

 

You can vote for the nominees here.