Just a day after the Hollywood Foreign Press Association gave away its’ Golden Globe Awards on Sunday, the British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) unveiled its’ nominations for the prestigious BAFTA Film Awards this year, also sparking a public outcry over the Academy’s failure to acknowledge female directors and performers of colour.
Joker, the dark take on the origin of Gotham’s Prince of Crime, emerged the top contender for the golden mask statuette, as it bagged a whopping 11 nods, including nominations in the Best Picture, Best Director and Best Actor categories. The Todd Phillips directorial is followed by Martin Scorsese’s gangster epic The Irishman and Quentin Tarantino’s period comedy Once Upon a Time…in Hollywood, with 10 nominations each.
Joaquin Phoenix, who was also the winner in the Best Actor category at the Golden Globes, found himself joining the likes of Leonardo DiCaprio (Once Upon a Time in…Hollywood), Adam Driver for Marriage Story, Jonathan Pryce for The Two Popes and Taron Egerton for The Rocketman. Egerton had also bagged the Best Actor Award in the Musical or Comedy Category for his portrayal of musical legend Elton John.
Golden Globes’ Best Picture winner 1917 (directed by Sam Mendes) also bagged a BAFTA nod for Best Picture, along with The Irishman, Once Upon a Time…in Hollywood, Bong Joon-Ho’s acclaimed Parasite and Joker. The directors of these movies also figure in the nominee list for Best Director.
Renee Zellweger, who won the Golden Globe on Sunday for her portrayal of yesteryear actress Judy Garland in Judy, could find herself competing against Scarlett Johansson (Marriage Story), Jessie Buckley (Wild Rose), Saoirse Ronan (Little Women) and Charlize Theron (Bombshell) for the statuette for Best Actress.
This year’s BAFTA nominations have, however, invited grave criticism from several quarters for its’ lack of female directors and artists of colour in the nominees list. Not that no notable films have been made by female directors. Greta Gerwig’s adaptation of the classic novel Little Women had already made it to the top ten lists of the year’s best films. The Farewell by Chinese director Lulu Wang has also emerged as a major contender in the awards season. However, both directors have been snubbed from the Best Director nomination list. The last time the BAFTA gave a nod to a female director was to Kathryn Bigelow for her war thriller Zero Dark Thirty (2012).
The year’s BAFTA nominations have also been censured for its’ failure to recognise non-white and non-American actors. While the Golden Globe Awards had recognized Cynthia Erivo and Eddie Murphy for their performances in Harriet and Dolemite is My Name by nominating them, both actors could not make it to the final cut announced by BAFTA. Awkwafina, the lead in The Farewell, was also snubbed by the Academy for Best Actress, despite her victorious night at the Golden Globes. She had become the first performer of Asian descent to bag the prestigious Golden Globe award for Best Actress (Musical or Comedy) on Sunday. Surprisingly, Awkwafina found herself in the list of nominees for the Rising Star Award, which acknowledges new talents in the acting industry. The Academy has, evidently, also failed to recognise the talents of Spanish actor Antonio Banderas, for his role in Dolor y Gloria (Pain and Glory), Jennifer Lopez for Hustlers, Alfre Woodard for Clemency and Lupita Nyong’o for Us.
Twitter has already began lambasting the British Film Academy for snubbing female directors, performers of colour and non-American descent. The hashtag ‘#BAFTASoWhite’ has been taken up by the Twitterati to throw their comments on the lack of diversity in the nominees list. Much of the vitriol and mockery is being aimed at the surprising nod given by the Academy to Margot Robbie, who has received two nominations in the Supporting Actress Category, for her roles in Once Upon a Time…in Hollywood and Bombshell. Scarlett Johansson also received a double nod for her acting in Marriage Story and Jojo Rabbit, in the categories of Best Actress and Supporting Actress respectively. Many have come out in the platform to comment that some of the nominated performances are easily overwhelmed by some remarkable acting by performers such as Awkwafina and Cynthia Erivo, who were eventually snubbed, with one user tweeting that “when you see their work, and these are the nominations you end up with, something is clearly wrong.”
The backlash against this year’s BAFTA nominations bears a striking resemblance to the ‘#OscarsSoWhite’ campaign against the all-white and all-American list of nominees announced by the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences for its’ Oscars in 2015.
In response, the British Film Academy has come out in public to acknowledge the mounting criticism, with BAFTA CEO Amanda Berry calling the lack of diversity “disappointing”. Marc Samuelson, chair of BAFTA’s film committee, commented that the lack of diversity in acting nominations was “infuriating”. In a statement to Variey, Samuelson said, “It’s just a frustration that the industry is not moving as fast as certainly the whole BAFTA team would like it to be.”
The BAFTA awards are one of cinema’s biggest award nights, and is often seen as a major predictor for the winners at Hollywood’s big night, the Academy Awards. The BAFTA awards are scheduled to be held on February 2, in a ceremony hosted by Graham Norton.
