Richard E. Grant and Alison Hammond headlined last year's BAFTA awards. Photo: Stuart Wilson/BAFTA
“The Baftas just want to be Oscars!” is the cry usually heard on social media whenever the annual British Academy Awards ceremony approaches. And for many years after 2001, when the event was moved from late spring to February to coincide with American awards season, the criticism was generally fair.
Lately, however, Bafta have been actively reforging their identity — and while many similarities with their louder and grander American counterpart remain, they have become a much more enjoyable affair, with brighter winners, more interesting broadcasts and less risk of presenters being highlighted in live broadcast.
Here are eight key areas in which they took the lead.
1. The voting system has become smarter (albeit completely confusing)
Deep breath: let's start with the hardest part. In 2020, following a ceremony in which the main contenders — Martin Scorsese, Quentin Tarantino, Sam Mendes, etc. — could be described as strong but outdated, Bafta revised its voting procedures. While the new system is confusing, it consistently produces good results, offering voters and viewers a healthy mix of critical favorites, prestige series and popular hits.
As at the Oscars, the nomination lists are compiled by the respective Bafta departments: the editors decide who will compete for best editing, and so on. But rather than relying on the popular vote, smaller juries fill out the original long lists with a few additional names to avoid any glaring omissions. Each category is administered slightly differently: in directing, the jury again must whittle those names down to the final five or six, although the two most popular in the return vote automatically advance. Then, in the final round, all participants vote for their favorite.
David Johnson and Vivian Opara in Rye Lane Photo: Chris Harris
The Oscars system is simpler: the branches select the nominees; membership was a winner. But this has made it harder for top talent to secure their place in the spotlight, such as Rye Lane's Vivian Opara, who deservedly won this year's BAFTA for Best Actress alongside the likes of Sandra Hüller, Margot Robbie and Emma Stone.< /p>2 . Their public reward really works
Since the mid-aughts, as Oscar's best picture tastes became ever more intellectual, the Academy became increasingly paranoid about things that were out of step with mainstream moviegoers. Their attempt at a solution?
In 2022, two new categories will be introduced, the winners of which will be chosen by the public. Dubbed the #OscarsCheerMoment and #OscarsFanFanFavourite, the #hilarious #sneering awards were quickly seized upon by Zack Snyder's fans before both were quietly shelved the following year.
However, since 2006 Bafta has run its own annual festival. public vote — the Rising Star Award for outstanding talent — with minimal controversy and often pleasingly prophetic results. Past honorees include James McAvoy, Eva Green, Kristen Stewart and Tom Hardy, while recent nominees include newcomers Jessie Buckley, Barry Keoghan, Lashana Lynch and Harris Dickinson.
Barry Keoghan in the film «Saltburn 2». They celebrate British film in a meaningful way
Unlike the French Césars or the Japanese Academy Film Awards, the Baftas present a national award. an industry half entrenched in the Hollywood system and half completely independent of it. This strange duality can lead to confusion: remember the protests in 2014 when Alfonso Cuarón's Gravity was (rightly) hailed as the outstanding British film.
But now, with four categories dedicated exclusively to British products, a healthy balance has been struck. This year's Outstanding British Film category is an old one, with ten nominees ranging from Wonka to Zone of Interest to Napoleon and Saltburn. Whoever wins that night, the bigger picture it paints certainly looks good.
4. The winners are not political. Awards ceremonies are, of course, designed to highlight outstanding achievements, although ideally it is the films that get the recognition, not the voters who choose them. Ever since American politics went crazy, Best Picture Oscar winners have come with agendas attached to them, from the wacky populism of Green Book to the Biden White House-endorsed CODA to the celebration of immigrant hard work in «Green Book.» Everything is everywhere and at once.”
None of them were the best choices, and the Coda was completely absurd, but they all allowed the Academy to burnish its reputation in some way. Over the same period, it would be difficult to argue that the best Bafta films, including Roma, Power of the Dog and All Quiet on the Western Front, won on anything other than merit, even if the individual choices were sometimes enjoyable . shocks.
5. The ceremony is shorter and earlier
On Oscar night next month, the 2024 awards season will last 193 days: more than half the calendar year. It's just ridiculous, and by the time Bafta lands on Day 172, more or less everyone has had their fill of it.
Austin Butler at the 2023 Baftas Awards Photo: Getty
Next come the ceremonies themselves. Baftas is broadcast over two hours on a Sunday evening on BBC One (cut from the live three hours, but ends roughly in sync); The Oscar ceremony lasted three and a half hours plus overtime. The constant commercial breaks in the latter don't help, nor do the logistics of the venue: footage of the winners simply walking onto the stage eats up an average of 12 minutes of screen time per year.
6. Categories are better
Moments of joy and fan favorites aside, the last time the Oscars tried to introduce a new category was in 2018: Outstanding Achievement in a Popular Film. Over the last decade, voters have left little room for Marvel, Star Wars and others in the top categories — acting, writing, directing and Best Picture itself — so there was a way to artificially make it happen.
But the plan was received so poorly that it was timidly abandoned the following month. Meanwhile, Bafta has launched a new Best Casting award, which pays tribute to an area of the business that, unlike huge franchises, deserves some extra praise. The Academy Awards recently announced that they would follow suit, although this would somehow delay it until 2026.
7. Britain really loves movies
Napoleon: £14.2 million. Killers of the Flower Moon: £9.8m Poor things; £5.9 million and counting. All of Us Strangers: £2.7 in just two weeks. While the UK box office may not yet be back to pre-Covid levels, we're seeing smart originals in cinemas again: the spirit of discovery is what determines the cultural significance of awards season.
Compare this with the dismal situation in the US, where ticket sales for the first three films above lagged behind UK sales by 33 to 60 percent.
8. Americans don't have Alison Hammond
When the 2022 Oscars tried to rediscover commonalities, they partnered with 24 fawning TikTok dorks. But last year's Bafta Awards revealed a secret weapon for audience entertainment: the veteran film correspondent for ITV's This Morning, who co-hosted the ceremony with Richard E. Grant.
Presenter Alison Hammond Photo: Vianney Le Caer
True, Hammond's easy warmth and charisma were a bit wasted in the end at a Q&A in the dressing room when she should have been on stage with her more attractive co-host. However, her presence demonstrated a new will from above to make Bafta the truly mainstream event it should be, and it's a shame she wasn't brought back.
This year's host is David Tennant, who, as a renowned Shakespearean and former Doctor Who star, was apparently seen as covering both areas.
The 2024 Bafta film award winners have been announced 18 February, broadcast on BBC One and BBC iPlayer
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