Rising Star BAFTA Nominees Set; Christian Rank New DR Head Of Drama – Global Briefs

Nominees for the 2018 EE Rising Star Award, the only BAFTA film prize voted on by the public, have been revealed with Call Me By Your Name‘s Timothée Chalamet; Get Out‘s Daniel Kaluuya; God’s Own Country‘s Josh O’Connor; Lady Macbeth‘s Florence Pugh; and Thor: Ragnarok‘s Tessa Thompson vying for the win. The nominations are intended to represent five actors and actresses who have shown outstanding talent on the big screen in the past year and have captured the attention of both the public and the film industry. Pugh and O’Connor recently won British Independent Film Awards for their lead roles in the titles noted above; Chalamet has taken a host of acting honors this year and is up for a Golden Globe this weekend; Kaluuya also has several prizes under his belt and is nominated in the Globe Best Actor Musical or Comedy category. Finally, Thompson has won prizes for her previous work and in 2017 starred in the blockbuster third installment in Marvel’s Thor series; she’s also in this May’s Avengers: Infinity War. Previous Rising Star winner Juno Temple and broadcaster Edith Bowman made the nominations reveal this afternoon in London. The winner will be announced on February 18 at the BAFTA Film Awards ceremony.

Denmark’s DR has set Christian Rank to succeed Piv Bernth as Head of Drama. The TV2 Fiction executive will take over the post on February 1. Veteran drama exec and The Killing producer Bernth left DR last year and launched Apple Tree Productions with Lars Hermann. ITV acquired a stake in the company in December. Rank recently worked on TV2 series Rita and Norskov and has also produced major drama series for DR, The Legacy and Happiness. He says his first focus will be “to create a new strong organization in DR Drama” at a time when it is “more important than ever to ensure that DR can continue to contribute original and relevant fictional narratives that reflect and discuss our common life and society in relevant and entertaining manner.”