What the Oscars can learn from BAFTA Rising Star Award

BAFTA awards.

The British Academy of Film and Television Arts, commonly known as BAFTA, is gearing up for its big night tonight with the BAFTA Film Awards. BAFTA’s focus on British film is not the only characteristic that sets it apart from its American counterpart, the Oscars; they also give out a couple of awards that are specifically meant to shine a light on the future of the industry — the Outstanding Debut by a British Writer, Director or Producer, and the Rising Star Award.

This year, the Outstanding Debut award is likely to go to Charlotte Wells for her debut feature Aftersun. Wells wrote and directed the quasi-autobiographical mood piece, which follows a young Scottish girl and her father on vacation in the early 2000s.

Aftersun garnered rave reviews, topped Sight and Sound’s 2022 list, and received a lone Oscar nomination for Normal People’s Paul Mescal in the Best Actor Category. Previous winners of the Outstanding Debut award include Steve McQueen, Joe Wright and Asif Kapadia.

The BAFTA Rising Star award aims to honour young acting talent who have shown exceptional command of the craft and have made a lasting impact on the public. Previous winners include Kristen Stewart, Daniel Kaluuyaa, and Tom Holland. This year’s nominees are Naomi Ackie, Sheila Atim, Emma Mackey, Daryl McCormack and Aimee Lou Wood, all of whom have done stellar work in film and television.

Naomi Ackie has been popping up in small but significant roles over the last few years. She gained critical notice in Lady Macbeth (2016) and had a bit role in Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker (2019), but she hit the big leagues this year playing pop legend Whitney Houston in the biopic titled Whitney Houston: I Wanna Dance With Somebody (2022) for which she received critical acclaim.

Sheila Atim has been a force to reckon with on the British stage since 2016 but her film career had a real boost last year with a small appearance in Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness (2022) which she followed up with a powerful performance in The Woman King (2022) as Amenza, the best friend and confidante to Viola Davis’ General Nanisca. If Atim were to win the Rising Star she would be taking over from her co-star in The Woman King, Lashana Lynch, the current recipient of the award.

Emma Mackey is probably the most recognisable of the nominees as one of the leads of Netflix’s hugely popular teen comedy-drama series Sex Education (2019). Her performance as the outwardly tough but secretly sensitive Maeve Wiley is one of the highlights of the show. She was a part of a large ensemble in the Poirot mystery Death on the Nile (2022) last year, and her casting in Greta Gerwig’s Barbie later this year is likely to be some sort of in-joke regarding her uncanny resemblance to star Margot Robbie.

Scottish actor Daryl McCormack, the lone male nominee, is also the only contender to be nominated in the acting categories for his role as sex worker Leo Grande opposite Emma Thompson in Good Luck to You, Leo Grande (2022). McCormack also gave a stellar performance as conflicted insurance investigator Matthew Claflin in Apple TV+ series Bad Sisters (2022).

Aimee Lou Wood is the second alum from Netflix’s Sex Education on the list. Wood plays ditzy but surprisingly insightful Aimee Gibbs, a fan favourite with some of the most quotable lines on the show. She plays a pivotal role as Miss Harris opposite Bill Nighy in Living (2022), a remake of Akira Kurosawa’s Ikiru (1952).

The Oscar ceremony has been grappling with falling viewership and a general lack of cultural relevance for a few years now. Experts and industry insiders have long advocated a similar shake-up in the Oscar categories, including a Best Stuntwork category, which would allow for a different set of movies to have a presence at the Oscars and could be a genuinely fun segment to liven up the staid proceedings.

Last year’s ill-advised attempt to capture the youth demographic via Twitter resulted in truly groan-worthy recognitions for Zack Snyder’s Army of the Dead (2021) in the Oscars Fan Favourite category, and Zack Snyder’s Justice League (2021) in the Oscars Cheer Moment category for the "Flash Enters the Speed Force" sequence. It’s worth noting that both of these movies were primarily streaming movies with no real theatrical release, another sign of the Academy being truly out of touch. The simpler fix would be something like the Rising Star award — imagine Austin Butler, Stephanie Hsu, or Thuso Mbedu on stage receiving an Oscar — that would be an unmistakable sign of the Academy embracing the future.