The Bafta awards ceremony, which takes place this Sunday evening, has been strongly criticized for having featured only white actors, and no woman in the category of best director.
A week before the Oscars where he also seems in a position of strength, worrying him Joker favorite part of the Bafta Awards ceremony. The British cinema awards, strongly criticized this year for the lack of diversity in their selection, will take place this Sunday evening.
The film by American director Todd Phillips has eleven nominations – as many as for the Oscars on February 9. He appears in three of the four queen categories distinguished by the British Academy of Film and Television Arts (Bafta), and tells the transformation of the failed comic Arthur Fleck into an evil character who will become the archenemy of Batman.
Prince William and Kate are expected
With ten nominations each follow The irishman, politico-mafia thriller by Martin Scorsese, produced by Netflix, and Once Upon a Time … in Hollywood, Quentin Tarantino’s last film, an ode to 1960s Hollywood.
For Best Picture and Best Director they compete with Historical Drama 1917 and Parasite, Palme d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival in 2019, halfway between social drama and black comedy.
The winners are to be announced at a ceremony led by Irish host Graham Norton at the Royal Albert Hall in London, where Prince William and his wife Kate are expected.
A ceremony that aims to be more eco-responsible
No more single-use plastic and little environmentally friendly gift bags, hello the red carpet made from recycled materials. This year, the ceremony is trying to get closer to “carbon neutrality” and even asked the guests to opt for outfits already worn or, failing that, for eco-responsible designer clothes.
Joaquin Phoenix, awarded at the beginning of January at the American Golden Globes for his performance in Joker, is running for the Bafta for best actor against Leonardo DiCaprio (Once Upon a Time … in Hollywood), Adam Driver (Marriage story), Taron Egerton (Rocketman) and Jonathan Pryce (The two Popes).
Side actresses are in the running Renée Zellweger, already crowned at the Golden Globes for her role of Judy Garland in the biopic Judy, Scarlett Johansson (Marriage story), Saoirse Ronan (Doctor March’s daughters), Charlize Theron (Scandal) and Jessie Buckley (Wild rose).
“Shocking invisibility”
But this selection, made for most of the categories by the some 6,500 members of the Bafta, in particular professionals of the film industry, has been strongly criticized for having put forward only white actors and no woman in the category of best. director.
Critics had started to flourish in early January on social media, in part under the hashtag #BaftaSoWhite (“Bafta so white”). They then found an important spokesperson in the person of director Steve McQueen. “Black talent is far too overlooked,” stormed the Oscar-winning director of 12 years a slave in the Guardian.
The British branch of the Time’s up foundation “recalled the performances of Lupita Nyong’o, Jennifer Lopez, Cynthia Erivo, Jodie Turner-Smith and Marianne Jean-Baptiste”, denouncing an “invisibility all the more shocking given the choice” and the “power” of films with black or Asian actors this year.
No woman in the “best director” category
This association for the fight against harassment in the cinema, born in the wake of the #MeToo movement, also regretted the absence of women in the category of best director despite “exceptional films” such Booksmart, The farewell, Harriet, Honey boy, The Nightingale, Queen & Slim or Portrait of the girl on fire.
Shortly after the start of the controversy, several members of the leadership of the Bafta also said they were “disappointed” with an “annoying” lack of diversity. Even if this “does not take anything away from the people who have been appointed,” added its director Amanda Berry to the British press agency Press Association.
The Bafta for Best Foreign Language Film could go to The farewell, family chronicle on the shock of cultures of the Sino-American director Lulu Wang, or the South Korean film Parasite.
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Joker at the top of the Bafta nominations, deemed too white