Miller's tale may yet have a happy ending

Sienna Miller is a contender for Orange Rising Star at this year's British Academy Awards

Sienna Miller may have garnered as many headlines for her fashion sense and love life as for her art, but all that may be about to change.

She is named today as a contender for Orange Rising Star at this year's British Academy Awards, the film awards.

Miller, who has just celebrated her 26th birthday, is among five internat ional actors and actresses who have demonstrated "exceptional talent".

She made her film debut in Matthew Vaughn's Layer Cake but then came to attention for dating her Alfie co-star Jude Law.

Their on-off relationship made her famous, and she has since become a style icon. She is currently dating Notting Hill star Rhys Ifans.

She has also worked on a string of movies including Factory Girl, about Andy Warhol's muse Edie Sedgwick, and Interview, directed by Steve Buscemi.

Miller's rivals for the Bafta award include Sam Riley, who played the part of Joy Division frontman Ian Curtis in Anton Corbijn's film biopic Control.

There is strong international competition too. Shia LeBeouf, who is currently in production on the fourth Indiana Jones movie, was seen in the recent action adventure Transformers and the thriller Disturbia.

Ellen Page, a Canadian actress, is garnering good reviews for her role as a pregnant teenager in the forthcoming Juno.

The final contender is Tang Wei, the Chinese star of Ang Lee's current release Lust, Caution. She has appeared in stage plays and on television but this was her feature film debut.

Eva Green, the Bond star who was last year's winner, announced the shortlist.

She said: "This year's five nominees are all actors who have really stood out in their work and I'm sure we'll see a lot more of them throughout 2008."

The award is the only Bafta prize voted for by the public, via the website orange.co.uk/bafta or text message.

Hattie Magee of Orange said: "It's great to be able to give real film fans the opportunity to vote on tomorrow's rising stars and to get involved with such a significant night in the film calendar."

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The shortlist was chosen by members of the film industry including Green, Duncan Kenworthy, the producer of films such as Love Actually and John Madden, the director of movies including Shakespeare in Love and Mrs Brown.

All the nominees must have featured in a film entered for this year's awards. The winner will be announced at the Orange Baftas on 10 February.

The award was established in honour of Mary Selway, a respected casting director who died in 2004. The first winner was James McAvoy.

Scroll down for the other nominees...