Bafta: British Film awards are making changes to improve diversity
- Published
The biggest British film and TV awards show has announced 120 changes they'll make to increase the diversity of the stars and film makers who are nominated for awards.
It comes after the British Academy of Film and Television Arts (Bafta) was criticised earlier this year for failing to nominate any women in the Best Director category for the seventh year in a row, while there was also no nominations for non-white actors in the four main acting categories.
The organisers carried out a review and the results have led them to make 120 changes to address the lack of diversity.
These changes will be introduced for the film awards in 2021.
What is the problem?
Many people believe there isn't enough diversity at the Baftas for stars and directors who are nominated.
What would diversity at the awards shows look like?
Well, many people believe there's a lack of female nominees, as well as a lack of black, Asian and minority ethnic (BAME) nominees. Not having as many nominees means that there are also fewer winners.
The Bafta awards were criticised for a lack of representation after no non-white actors were nominated this year and no women were nominated in the best director category for the seventh year in a row.
Movie director Sir Steve McQueen, whose films have won lots of awards, says the Baftas "have to change. Fact."
He warned that Bafta is in danger of becoming "irrelevant, redundant and of no interest or importance" unless the organisation addresses the lack of diversity in its nominations.
Director Steve McQueen's film 12 Years a Slave won the Bafta Award for Best Film in 2014
Earlier in 2020, Prince William made a speech at the Baftas saying: "We find ourselves talking again about the need to do more to address diversity in the sector.
"That cannot be right in this day and age. Bafta take this issue seriously, and following this year's nominations have launched a full review … to ensure the opportunities are available to everyone."
It's not just the Baftas, many other major awards shows have been criticised too for lacking diversity including the Brits and the Oscars in the United States.
Prince William said diversity in the sector needs to be addressed
What changes will Bafta make?
Bafta said earlier in the year that it would have a "careful and detailed review" of its voting system. now that review is complete, they say they will make many changes to try improve the lack of diversity including:
- Expanding the number of nominees there are for the acting and best director awards from five to six.
- Increasing the nominations for the best British film category from six to 10 nominations to increase the variety of British work.
- Expanding their membership to target new members from under-represented groups.
If we give an award to someone, we give that performance or film or piece of content value, so if we ignore people from sections of society, whether that be people of colour, whether that be females, whether that be disabled filmmakers, that means we don't value them and we realised there was something fundamentally that needed to change to remove those barriers to diversity.
Bafta said they hope these changes will be a cultural shift and "address the lack of opportunity and equality in the industry."
Changes to the television awards will be announced next month and separate games and children's awards reviews are being conducted later this year.
- Published19 February 2020
- Published10 February 2020
