Earlier this year, BAFTA (the British Academy of Film and Television Arts) faced intense criticism after nominating only white performers across the four main acting categories — Leading Actress, Leading Actor, Supporting Actress and Supporting Actor — at their annual awards ceremony. The academy was also called out for presenting an all-male shortlist for Best Director for the seventh consecutive year. Those developments prompted questions about BAFTA’s commitment to diversity and inclusion and led, as of 23 September 2020, to a series of substantial reforms to how the organisation selects and vets its awards.
The most notable reform directly affects the Best Director category. BAFTA has revised its voting and shortlisting procedures to ensure a guaranteed minimum number of female filmmakers are included on the director shortlist. The revised shortlist will consist of 20 filmmakers, of whom 10 will be women; the final six nominations will be selected from this list. BAFTA officials say this step is intended to address the historical underrepresentation of female directors in the category. To date, Kathryn Bigelow remains the only woman to have won BAFTA’s Best Director prize, for her 2010 film The Hurt Locker. She is also one of only five women ever shortlisted in this category and was the last female nominee for her work on Zero Dark Thirty in 2013.
BAFTA has also reconfigured the acting categories to allow for broader recognition. Where acting categories traditionally featured five nominees each, the organisation has increased the allotment to six nominees for Best Actor, Best Actress, Supporting Actor and Supporting Actress. This change provides additional opportunities for diverse performances to be acknowledged and aims to reduce the number of overlooked, deserving artists in any single year.
In a further attempt to highlight the depth and range of filmmaking in the UK, BAFTA has expanded the Outstanding British Film longlist to include 10 titles rather than the usual six. This wider slate is designed to showcase a greater variety of British-produced work and to support emerging directors, particularly those from multicultural and under-represented backgrounds who may previously have struggled to gain exposure within the awards process.
Marc Samuelson, chair of BAFTA’s Film Committee, explained the motivation behind the changes: “One of the key issues raised time and time again was that too much deserving work was not being seen.” The committee’s statement and the subsequent policy adjustments came after a detailed internal review earlier in the year that concluded concrete steps were necessary to improve diversity across BAFTA nominations and membership.
Alongside altering category sizes and nomination mechanics, BAFTA has committed to growing its voting membership with a targeted outreach to under-represented communities. The organisation has set out to recruit 1,000 new members from diverse backgrounds so that a wider range of perspectives is represented in the voting body. This initiative mirrors earlier reforms by other major film academies that sought to diversify their membership and elevate historically excluded voices in the awards process.
To strengthen the integrity and fairness of voting, BAFTA will require all board members to view every film included on the longlist for Best Film. Additionally, all voting members will be asked to undertake a “conscious voter training” course aimed at raising awareness of implicit bias and promoting more equitable decision-making. These steps are intended to create a more informed and conscientious electorate within the academy.
While these changes were announced for the BAFTA Film Awards, BAFTA has indicated that similar adjustments may be applied to its television, games and children’s awards. Further details for those sectors were expected to be released later in the year.
The BAFTA Film Awards are scheduled to take place on 11 April, moved later in the year in response to ongoing disruptions caused by the global health crisis. The new timetable, together with the procedural changes, reflects the academy’s effort to adapt both to external circumstances and internal calls for reform.
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