Last night’s Best Picture at the Oscar’s, the Korean film Parasite, also won a major award at the recent BAFTAs – though that time it was for Best Film Not In The English Language.
Although the award has been on offer since 1982, this year the language in the title of this “not in English” award received a lot of flack online. Here are some of the comments off Twitter:
@Nit3Crawl3r: “Film not in English Language. What kinda award name………”
@dmgdwzrd: “Could’ve been: Best Foreign Language Film, Best International Film, Best Non-English Film, Film Not In The English Language is just kind of a mouthful and too literal.”
@hoescarwilde: “you guys are so f*ckin LAZY – here’s a translation “film not in English language because since baftas are too white we kinda also gotta give awards to nickgurrs and other minorities.”
The only other award to go to someone seen as ‘diverse’ was the EE Rising Star Award which went to a black actor for the third year running – this time to Michael Ward. However this award also drew some criticism:
@ellaadoja posted on Twitter: “There’s something so jarring about the fact that black actors can be ‘rising starts’ in BAFTA’s eyes but can never actually RISE to the point of winning the main awards.”
They could have a point. Will Ward ever get the best actor award over here? Or for that will he have to go to America where the Best Actor in a Leading Role trophy has gone to black actors five times: Sidney Poitier (19623); Denzel Washington (2001), Jamie Foxx (2004), Forest Whitaker @006), and Halle Berry (2001)
This year’s Best Leading Actor at the BAFTAs, Joaquin Phoenix, certainly appeared to thinks that the ‘B’ in BAFTA stands for ‘white’ British, and suggested he was part of the problem by saying, “I feel conflicted that many of my fellow actors that are deserving don’t have the same privilege.” But to my mind calling BAFTA out after getting the award is a bit like having your cake and eating it!
Those who think that Meghan the Duchess of Sussex was driven away from the UK by racism might think Prince William was also having his cake and eating it when he took to the BAFTA stage to also call out our national film academy for lack of diversity.
After ten years as President of BAFTA the prince said, “Yet in 2020, and not for the first time in the last few years, we find ourselves talking again about the need to do more to ensure diversity in the sector and in the awards process – that simply cannot be right in this day and age.”
This was either a sincere attempt do use his platform to try and change things, or just another chance for a royal ‘celebrity’ to get some woke publicity. Time will tell, but my guess is that this time next year it will be the same story and the same speeches.