Orange Rising Star Nominees for 2008

London, 8 January 2008.

Today, Eva Green, the 2007 winner, announced this year's nominees for the Orange Rising Star Award. The award recognises five international actors and actresses who have demonstrated exceptional talent and have begun to capture the imagination of the public as a star in the making. The five nominees are: Shia LeBeouf, Sienna Miller, Ellen Page, Sam Riley and Tang Wei. [1]

The Orange Rising Star Award is unique as it is the only Award presented at the Orange British Academy Film Awards to be voted for by the British public. Film fans can have their say by voting via the Orange website orange.co.uk/bafta; or via text message

• . The winner will be announced at the Orange British Academy Film Awards on Sunday 10 February 2008.

To vote for:

A jury, chaired by producer Duncan Kenworthy and consisting of respected industry figures, including director John Madden, Empire Executive Editor Ian Nathan and last year's winner, Eva Green, selected the five nominees from a long list of recommendations put forward by the film industry and BAFTA members.

Nominees must have featured in a film that has been entered for this year’s Orange British Academy Film Awards. Nominees will have generally already appeared in several feature films in their career so far.

Eva Green commented: "I was delighted to receive the award last year, winning was a huge surprise. The nominees I was up against would all have been worthy winners of the award so I was thrilled when the public voted me as The Orange Rising Star. This year’s five nominees are all actors who have really stood out in their work and I’m sure we’ll see a lot more of them throughout 2008.”

Hattie Magee, Head of Partnerships at Orange, commented: “The Orange Rising Star Award is the only award at the BAFTA Film Awards voted for by the public. It’s great to be able to give real film fans the opportunity to vote on tomorrow’s rising stars and to get involved with such a significant night in the film calendar.

“It is important for us to be involved in an award that promotes and supports next generation talent and reflects our belief in a brighter future.”

Finola Dwyer, Chairman of the BAFTA Film Committee, said: “This is the third year of the Orange Rising Star Award which has previously been awarded to the huge talents of James McAvoy & Eva Green, who, since they won, have both gone on to show why they were worthy winners.

“We are pleased to be working with Orange again on the awards and we’re sure that the five nominees for the Orange Rising Star Award will ensure that this will be one of the most exciting awards of the night.”

The Orange Rising Star Award was created in honour of Mary Selway, the highly respected BAFTA-winning casting director who died in 2004. Mary’s career spanned three decades and over ninety films . She helped launch the careers of many stars in films as varied as Gosford Park, Master & Commander, Notting Hill and Withnail & I, among countless others. She worked with notable directors such as Steven Spielberg, Roman Polanski, Clint Eastwood and Ridley Scott, contributing to the creation of some of the silver screen's most memorable characters.

For more information on The Orange Rising Star Award, visit www.orange.co.uk/bafta.

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For more information please contact:

Press Enquiries / Orange
John Parker or Naomi Li at M&C Saatchi Sport & Entertainment:
Tel: 0207 544 3855/3687
Email: [email protected] or [email protected]

Press Enquiries / BAFTA
Vicky Grayson or Johanna Fernihough at Freud Communications
Tel: 020 3003 6300
Email: [email protected] or [email protected]

Notes to Editors

[1] NOMINEE SHORT BIOGRAPHIES

Shia LaBeouf

• Shia LaBeouf burst onto the scene and has quickly become one of Hollywood's most sought-after actors. Shia is currently in production on the fourth Indiana Jones instalment, Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull.
• He was recently seen in the action adventure Transformers, the thriller Disturbia and also recently featured in the animated film Surf’s Up voicing the young penguin, Cody Maverick.
• Shia also appeared in A Guide to Recognizing Your Saints co-starring Robert Downey Jr. and Rosario Dawson and in the highly acclaimed film Bobby for director Emilio Estevez.

Sienna Miller

• Sienna's film debut came in Layer Cake, the Matthew Vaughn hit film based on JJ Connelly's London crime novel. Sienna’s next role was ‘Nikki’, a beautiful but unstable party girl, in the remake of the 1960’s classic Alfie. She then travelled to Venice to star opposite Heath Ledger in Casanova.
• Sienna went on to film Factory Girl, a biopic telling the story of the short and tragic life of Edie Sedgwick, Andy Warhol's muse. Her next role was that of Katya in Interview. Sienna was approached directly by Steve Buscemi, who both stars in and directs the film, to play this role.
• Sienna has two unreleased projects, The Mysteries of Pittsburg, which will be competing at The Sundance Film Festival in 2008. She has just finished filming Working Title’s Hippie Hippie Shake which tells the controversial story of the Oz Trials in revolutionary 1960’s London.

Ellen Page

• Ellen Page, a native of Halifax, Nova Scotia has established a name for herself as one of the busiest young emerging actors. She was thrown into the spotlight in the summer of 2004, when she played the lead in Hard Candy, a hard hitting independent feature from director David Slade.
• Ellen was then offered the role of Kitty Pride in the third instalment of X-Men shot in the autumn of 2005. Immediately following X3, She was offered the role of Tracey in Bruce MacDonald's The Tracey Fragments shot in early 2006, followed by another starring role, this time opposite Catherine Keener, in An American Crime. 2006 ended with yet another starring role opposite Dennis Quaid and Sarah Jessica Parker in Smart People. Upcoming projects include Jack and Diane and Light-House to shoot in 2008.
• Most recently Ellen has won critical acclaim for her performance in Jason Reitman's Juno, Ellen's title role portrayal of a pregnant teenager struggling to come to terms with the world around her has brought her to the attention of the cinema going public.

Sam Riley

• Sam Riley made his debut as a leading actor in Control, a film by Anton Corbijn. His extraordinary performance earned him many awards, including Best Actor at the Edinburgh International Film Festival. The film won the Directors' Fortnight Award at the Cannes Film Festival in 2007.
• Sam's work in film also includes Franklyn, directed by Gerald McMorrow and due for release in 2008, in which he stars with Eva Green and Ryan Philippe.
• Alongside his work as an actor, Sam is front man and songwriter with the band 10,000 Things. He lives in Berlin and Leeds.

Tang Wei

• Tang Wei makes her feature film debut in Lust, Caution. She was born in Hangzhou, the beautiful city near Shanghai, China. As a teenager, Ms. Tang began modelling. In 2004, she made it to the final round of the Miss Universe pageant in Beijing. She graduated from China's Central Academy of Drama with a major in Film Directing. Tang Wei is already a rising star in mainland China, having performed in stage plays and in the telefilm Jinghua Swallow. The latter earned her the Best Actress award at the 2006 CCTV Movie Channel Awards. Recently, she was nominated for an Independent Spirit award for best female lead for her work in Lust, Caution.
• Tang Wei has also written short novels and stage dramas, and directed theatre productions.

Orange Rising Star Award Nominees in 2008 (264.5 KB)