Baftas 2021: All The Major Winners & Losers
2. Rising Star Award – Bukky Bakray
In many ways Bukky Bakray was robbed of an award, but thankful she won another. Nominated for Rising Star Award and Best Actress at the Baftas, Bakray won the former and lost the latter for her breakout performance in Rocks.
For once it is refreshing to see the Rising Star Award won by someone who is still...errr...rising, and not for example other nominee 35-year-old Kingsley Ben-Adir, who has already been in a Guy Ritchie movie and Peaky Blinders. This is nothing against Ben-Adir's remarkable turn as Malcolm X in One Night in Miami, but it feels fair that the winner is someone who can benefit from this platform and is very much a rising star.
Bakray, who is still a teenager, was visibly shocked to win the only award voted for by the public and gave one of the best speeches of the evening. However, Bakray looked like she may triumph again later for Best Actress (perhaps reminiscent of a teenage Jamie Bell winning the Bafta for Billy Elliot) but this was not the case. This was a particular shame considering how little love Rocks received, winning one out of its seven nominations, but only marks Bakray out as a talent to watch out for in the future.