BAFTA CEO: older white women BAFTA nominees count as diversity

In Britain, they do two BAFTA awards ceremonies, one for film and one for television, and they call both awards shows “the BAFTAs.” At the film BAFTAs this year, there was a concerted effort made to nominate people of color, from Angela Bassett to Viola Davis to Michelle Yeoh. Unfortunately, every single BAFTA winner this year was white. Cate Blanchett beat Yeoh and Davis; Kerry Condon beat Bassett and Hong Chau; Barry Keoghan beat Ke Huy Quan and Micheal Ward. Part of me still believes that in the British film industry’s hive-mind, “Irish” counts as an ethnic minority. I’m sure that’s the case for BAFTA president Prince William. In any case, this year’s BAFTA television nominations have come out and they are overwhelmingly white, to little surprise. Something funny and terrible happened though: BAFTA’s CEO claimed that nominating old white women “counts” as diversity.

BAFTA has celebrated the number of older white women nominated for best actress at its Television Awards amid a steep decline in ethnic diversity in performance shortlists. All six nominees in the Leading Actress category are white and have been nominated for BAFTAs across film and TV multiple times in the past.

Asked if BAFTA had hoped for a different outcome, CEO Jane Millichip said: “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.”

BAFTA later clarified that Millichip was referring to “representation” for older women as a separate issue from diversity, which it considers to relate to ethnicity and socio-economic background among other factors.

Imelda Staunton (aged 67) has been nominated for her performance as Queen Elizabeth II in The Crown. Other nominees include Kate Winslet (47) for I Am Ruth, Billie Piper (40) for I Hate Suzie Too, Maxine Peake (48) for Anne, Sarah Lancashire (58) for Julia, and Vicky McClure (39) for Without Sin.

Sara Putt, Deputy Chair of BAFTA and Chair of the Television Committee, said all the female nominees are “well deserving” of their place on the shortlist.

Some observed that Ambika Mod had been overlooked for her performance in BBC/AMC series This Is Going To Hurt, which is leading the chase for a bronze mask with a total of six nominations. Mod has been nominated for Supporting Actor at the Royal Television Society Awards, while the Broadcasting Press Guild nominated her for Best Actress. Deadline understands she was put forward for Supporting Actress rather than Leading Actress at the BAFTAs. There are three women of color nominated in the Supporting Actress category: Adelayo Adedayo (The Responder), Jasmine Jobson (Top Boy), and Saffron Hocking (Top Boy).

[From Deadline]

I mean, it’s a real thing when actors of color are snubbed for nominations in the lead category and relegated to supporting categories. That happens all the time across the board in the film and television industry, because most awards shows can’t handle films or TV shows with Black leads or Asian leads. So no, I’m not surprised that all of the lead actress nominees are white. I guess they deserve a slow clap for including women over the age of 40, although that’s been the case for decades now – women over 40 are pushed out of film work and given TV work.

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Backgrid.