This year’s outrageous crop of overwhelmingly white Bafta nominations shows that the academy needs to act now to make its members more diverse
This year’s crop of Bafta nominations are a dispiriting start to the decade. With its glaringly white, overwhelmingly male and thuddingly boring choices, its voting body of film industry members seem to have a limited understanding of “excellence”. All 20 acting nominations have been given to white performers: Scarlett Johansson and
Margot Robbie received two nominations each, with Robbie claiming two spots in the best supporting actress category (a real slap in the face). No women appear in the best director category, and none of this year’s best film nominees were directed by women.
It’s not at all surprising, but it is outrageous. Consider exceptional female-directed films such as Atlantics, Booksmart, Clemency, The Farewell, For Sama, Harriet, Honey Boy, Hustlers, Little
Women, The Nightingale, Portrait of a Lady on Fire, and The Souvenir. Recall performances from Lupita Nyong’o,
Jennifer Lopez, Cynthia Erivo, Alfre Woodard, Marianne Jean-Baptiste. The work is there and should speak for itself, but institutions aren’t listening. The same small pool of “talent” continues to be rewarded.