The British Academy has announced the nominees for its 2026 Rising Star award for up-and-coming talent on the big screen, once again selecting a mix of Brits and Americans.
The winner will be announced during the BAFTA Film Awards ceremony and is the only honor to be voted on by the public.
This year’s five-strong lineup includes Chase Infiniti (“One Battle After Another”) and Miles Caton (“Sinners”), who have already amassed multiple awards nominations and wins for their breakout roles. On home soil, Archie Madekwe (“Lurker”), Robert Aramayo (“I Swear”) and Posy Sterling (“Lollipop”) make the list.
Awards pundits may note that Infiniti and Aramayo are the only names also longlisted by BAFTA in lead performance categories. Aramayo — recognizable on the small screen for his major role in Amazon’s “The Rings of Power” — also won best leading actor at the British Independent Film Awards in December, where Sterling claimed the breakthrough performance honor. And while Infiniti and Caton may be the buzziest names on the list to most in awards season, it should also be noted that, since launching in 2005 (when James McAvoy took home the inaugural statuette), the Rising Star Award has only left the U.K. three times, and has been won by a British actor every year since 2010.
Previous winners of the award includes a heady mix of some of the brightest lights working today, featuring names such as Tom Holland, Daniel Kaluuya, Emma Mackey, Will Poulter and Kristen Stewart (the last American to win the honor, back in 2009). Jack O’Connell, who won the award in 2014, is currently lapping up critical praise for his wild turn in “28 Years Later: The Bone Temple” and starred alongside Caton in “Sinners,” while Mia McKenna-Bruce, who won in 2024, leads murder mystery series “Agatha Christie’s Seven Dials,” launching on Netflix tomorrow. David Jonsson, who won last year, recently appeared in and produced Cal McMau’s prison thriller “Wasteman” — which is BAFTA-longlisted for outstanding debut by a British writer, director or producer — and also landed acclaim for “The Long Walk.”
There’s also the previous nominees that didn’t claim the prize, a lineup that includes the likes of Cillian Murphy and Emily Blunt (both in 2006), Michael Fassbender (2008), Nicholas Hoult (2009), Tom Hiddleston (2011), Lupita Nyong’o (2013), Margot Robbie (2014), Timotheé Chalamet (2017) and Jessie Buckley (2018). Chalamet and Buckley are very much expected to be vying for the top performance prizes at both the Oscars and BAFTAs this year.
The full lineup of BAFTA Film Award nominations will be announced Jan. 27, with all the winners to be unveiled at the ceremony on Feb. 22 at London’s Royal Festival Hall.
