British Film Awards Blasted for Lack of Diversity
by EG
The British Academy of Film and Television Arts announced its annual awards nominations this week. If you're a fan of white male filmmakers (especially perennial nominees Quentin Tarantino and Martin Scorsese), you were probably happy with the noms. If you're interested in the film work of women or people of color, however, you were likely disappointed. Read on for details.
Via Deadline.
Today’s BAFTA nominations somewhat predictably reinforced the fact that female filmmakers are struggling to get major awards traction this year.
It was another round of shutouts for women in the Best Director field, following the Golden Globes where the exact same quintet of Quentin Tarantino, Martin Scorsese, Sam Mendes, Bong Joon Ho and Todd Phillips were nominees.
That’s seven years on the spin now that the Brit Academy has failed to nominate a single woman in the category, going all the way back to Kathryn Bigelow in 2013 for The Hurt Locker. In that time, Tarantino, Cuaron, Iñárritu, Chazelle and Scorsese have all scored multiple nominations.
A lack of viable candidates due to the paucity of good opportunities for women in the industry is the fall back counter argument, but Little Women director Greta Gerwig was a strong contender this year and the film was considered good enough to score five nominations, including Adapted Screenplay for Gerwig.
Out of 10 writing nominations across Adapted and Original Screenplay, Gerwig is one of two films written by women to be contending, alongside the Booksmart quartet of Susanna Fogel, Emily Halpern, Sarah Haskins and Katie Silberman. That’s an improvement on the Globes, where women were shutout in the writing categories as well.
Three years ago BAFTA became embroiled in a race row when it announced all-white acting nominations. This year, the event has revealed a similar lack of diversity in its main acting categories.
All 20 of the best actor and best supporting actor nominees are white, with Margot Robbie and Scarlett Johansson even afforded two nominations apiece. By our count, across BAFTA’s 160+ total nominees, there are fewer than five black nominees and only a handful of Asian nominees.
Get the rest of the story at Deadline.