The BAFTAs are having an actual #OscarsSoWhite yr…
Just three years in the past Joaquin Phoenix delivered a strong speech after his win, utilizing the platform — as a substitute of celebrating — to chastise the British awards physique for its overt failure to acknowledge actors of coloration. Everyone cheered on the time, however then this yr… it’s clear nothing really modified.
All 49 winners on the BAFTA movie awards final month have been white. In a yr with a juggernaut like Everything Everywhere All At Once which dominated the Oscars. And they adopted up that egregious night time with a pointy decline in variety amongst nominations for the TV awards introduced on Tuesday. The previous couple years, about 40% of the nominees have been from ethnic backgrounds aside from white — this yr it dropped to 24%. It will not be intentional, however it’s arduous to disregard when it retains taking place.
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The main class critics have pointed to is Leading Actress, during which all six nominees are white. The nominees have been Sarah Lancashire for Julia, Vicky McClure for Without Sin, Maxine Peake for Anne, Billie Piper for I Hate Suzie Too, Imelda Staunton for The Crown, and Kate Winslet for I Am Ruth. All nice actresses to make sure, however they’ve been honored earlier than — in truth, each single girl on that checklist has been nominated a minimum of twice earlier than.
Deadline requested BAFTAs CEO Jane Millichip if she was dissatisfied within the final result, and her reply was… lower than best. She mentioned:
“There is representation in that category in the fact that if you look at the age of the actresses and the roles written for them, it is extraordinary. This is something that we’ve discussed for a long time in the television and film world: Are the roles written for women over the age of 40? That is a really impressive result.”
Oof. Really? “Women over the age of 40”?? She’s equating that to variety? First off, we’re stoked for older girls to get nice roles and to be celebrated, however over 40 ain’t even precisely that outdated.
Secondly, WHAT THE ACTUAL EFF IS SHE TALKING ABOUT?? No one has been complaining the BAFTAs are ageist, they’ve been complaining they’re honoring a reasonably particular racial profile fairly solely. Not even the identical factor!
The BAFTAs did later suppose higher of the assertion, clarifying Jane was referring to “representation” as a very separate difficulty from variety. But because it was the reply she gave for the lack of variety, she should suppose it’s a minimum of a part of the identical dialog? She actually appeared to need a pat on the again for it. And that’s an actual drawback. The Oscars needed to really settle for there was an issue earlier than they might begin to change.
What do YOU consider the dearth of variety on the BAFTAs??
[Image via BAFTAs/YouTube.]