Last year, I wrote about the Oscar’s attempts to diversify their awards by introducing certain standards that a film must meet before it can be nominated. I questioned just how radical the changes were and whether The Oscars was more concerned about good publicity than an actual commitment to diversity. I also noted that several other film awards, such as the Berlinale and the BAFTAs, were also changing their guidelines and pondered if it would all truly make a difference.
While the changes at The Oscars won’t be implemented until next year, we got to see the first real examples of these quotas working at the 2021 BAFTAs on Sunday: and things are certainly looking positive. Out of the 24 acting nominees, 16 were people of colour (compared to last year when all of the nominees were white). Whilst behind the camera, 4 out of the 6 nominees for Best Director were women, with Nomadland’s Chloe Zhao becoming the first woman of colour to win the award.
It’s a triumph of diversity; but even more, it feels like BAFTA is finally achieving its raisond’etre to promote and celebrate British cinema, instead of sucking up to the rich and powerful in Hollywood. Too often have they felt like a timid imitation of the big American awards, with virtually all of last year’s winners matching those of The Oscars; but this year they defiantly did things their own way.
Independent British films The Mauritanian and The Father were nominated for Best Picture over Oscar front-runners such as Mank; while another, Sarah Gavron’s Rocks, had more nominations than any other film this year. Its teenage star Bukky Bakray was nominated for Best Actress over celebrities like Carey Mulligan and Olivia Colman, and she won the prestigious Rising Star Award: where else could she have had such a platform?
Of course, 2020 was not a normal year in any way, and many bigger-budget films already planned for release were postponed. If ,fingers crossed, the cinemas re-open permanently within the next few months, there could be a deluge of high-profile awards contenders, such as Steven Spielberg’s West Side Story and Martin Scorsese’s Killers of the Flower Moon. Clogging up the 2022 season (*nerd voice* this happened in 2002; after 9/11, most films were pulled leading to a more diverse Oscars that year and a packed field in 2003). It’s doubtful that small-scale independent films will ever get another chance to shine in the way they did during the pandemic.
But I do hope that BAFTA keeps these changes, and that their success will encourage other awards to improve themselves. If anything, it made me actually watch the ceremony this year just to see who would win; an excitement that’s been missing for some time.