From Joaquin Phoenix to Renee Zellweger, this year’s BAFTA Film Awards indeed saw big wins.
BAFTA is back with Newcomer’s Program, and their nomination list welcomes a record number of female participants.
The Newcomer’s Program
Brits Academy of Film and Television Arts has announced the 2020 participants of its Newcomers Program. For the first time, the program expanded to New York and accepted a record number of first-year female participants.
We are thrilled to announce the 2020 participants of the BAFTA Newcomers Program. Forty individuals were inducted this year and for the first time ever, the program expanded to New York!
Check out our group of Newcomers:https://t.co/Lo3Nj2063N#BAFTAtalent pic.twitter.com/SBGyJZZ7so
— BAFTA Los Angeles (@BAFTALA) October 7, 2020
The initiative to support emerging industry professionals boasts international talent from 20 countries. The list includes the U.K., Australia, China, France, Hungary, India, Israel, Italy, Kenya. Also, Mexico, New Zealand, Nigeria, Peru, Philippines will contest as well.
Consequently, Poland, Russia, Singapore, South Africa, Spain, and Turkey will be completing the list.
With 41 new members joining the four-year program, 98 participants, including actors, directors, producers, screenwriters. The back-end side includes composers, cinematographers, executives, art directors. Joining them will be production designers, animators, editors, and publicists.
BAFTA for diversity
After garnering big wins this season, BAFTA promises to be back with an extended list of nominees. With a penchant to respect diversity as our world is on the verge of cultural evolution, The Brit Academy’s aren’t far behind. They said to extend the list of stars and filmmakers with few of the world’s finest.
This comes after the Brits Awards received a slew of harsh feedback for picking up an all-white-star list. Meanwhile, some of the industry’s great works this year by women weren’t given their justified recognition.
For this, organizers carried out a detailed review as a result. This will now lead them to seek a target of 1,000 new voting members from under-represented groups meaningfully.
This move is just a starting one in a series of steps to ensure a more representative and inclusive membership that reflects today’s British society.
A slew of changes in judging criteria
The Committee Chairperson Marc Samuelson says, “One of the key issues raised time and time again was that too much deserving work was not being seen.”
Thus in direct response to such open criticism, The British Academy carried out the review. The project hopes to encompass all aspects of the organization.
The implementing changes are to ensure a merit judgment for the films.
The changes in campaigning rules will seek to convey a fairer consideration of all films regardless of the marketing budget.
Conclusively, the BAFTA Film Awards will ensure the best director jury will have a guaranteed number of female filmmakers. Consequently, the final six nominee shares selections from an even list of 20 names, half of whom are female filmmakers.
One is sure to keep their hope of prevailing justice alive, with a change in the wind for BAFTAs.
Image courtesy of Nando Machado/Shutterstock