James Mcavoy & Thandie Newton Join Orange Rising Star Jury

London, 24th November 2006: — James McAvoy, Anthony Minghella and Thandie Newton joined their fellow jurors today to cast their final votes to decide on the five nominees for The Orange Rising Star Award, the only award voted for by the public at The Orange British Academy Film Awards in 2007. Members of the public can vote for their favourite by text or online at www.orange.co.uk/bafta from 8th January, when the five nominees will be announced.

Potential Rising Stars are proposed by BAFTA members and distributors to create a long list of names which is reduced to five nominees by a panel consisting of actors, directors, producers, media representatives and BAFTA Film Committee members. Today, the final five nominees were decided by secret ballot so both the jury and the public will have to wait until an official announcement is made on the 8th of January before voting can begin.

This year's Orange Rising Star Jury members are James McAvoy (Actor), Thandie Newton (Actress), Duncan Kenworthy (BAFTA), David Parfitt (BAFTA), Anthony Minghella (Director and Producer), Fiona Weir (Casting Director) Sarah Radclyffe (Producer), Ian Freer (Empire), David Edwards (Daily Mirror), Alex O'Connell(The Times), Dylan Jones(GQ) and Charles Gant (Film Journalist).

The Award recognizes actors who have recently broken into mainstream cinema with eye catching performances in at least one feature length film during the award year (1 January —

31 December 2006). The Award is not intended as a true ‘beginner's award' and nominees will usually have already appeared in several films, nor is it intended to be for child actors. In exceptional circumstances, a star-making debut will be considered. Nominees will usually be aged between 18 and 32. This is the second year of The Orange Rising Star Award, with James McAvoy receiving the award in its inaugural year.

Hattie Evans, Head of Film at Orange UK said: “The calibre of people we have on the jury shows how much of an impact the award made last year. We're delighted to welcome a number of new jurors this year including two of Britain's highest profile actors in Thandie Newton and James McAvoy, as well as the highly respected director, Anthony Minghella.”

Last year's winner James McAvoy commented: “I was really honored to win The Orange Rising Star Award last year. It meant so much to me because it was voted on by the fans. I was delighted when Orange asked me to sit on the jury for the 2007 award, it's great to be involved in an award which recognizes emerging talent.”

The Orange Rising Star Award was created in honour of Mary Selway, the highly respected BAFTA-winning casting director whose career spanned three decades and over ninety films before she died in 2004. Mary 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.