The BAFTAs Acknowledge That There’s Zero Diversity In Their Acting Nominations This Year

January 7, 2020 / Posted by:

Not very long after the 2020 Golden Globe nominations were announced, the internet quickly pointed out that once again, there were no women in the category for Best Director. You might think that kind of oversight would set the standard for the rest of the award season nominations. There’s got to be one voice of reason that saw the Golden Globes nomination backlash, and opened a nomination committee meeting with “So…let’s make an effort not to trend on Twitter for the wrong reasons, agreed?

But when it came to the BAFTAs, they actually managed to bring even less diversity than the Golden Globes. The 2020 BAFTA nominations were announced today, and every single actor and actress nominated is white.

Here are all the people who were nominated for BAFTA acting awards this year:

Leading Actress
Jessie Buckley, Wild Rose
Scarlett Johansson, Marriage Story
Saoirse Ronan, Little Women
Charlize Theron, Bombshell
Renée Zellweger, Judy

Leading Actor
Leonardo DiCaprio, Once Upon a Time in Hollywood
Adam Driver, Marriage Story
Taron Egerton, Rocketman
Joaquin Phoenix, Joker
Jonathan Pryce, The Two Popes

Supporting Actress
Laura Dern, Marriage Story
Scarlett Johansson, Jojo Rabbit
Florence Pugh, Little Women
Margot Robbie, Bombshell
Margot Robbie, Once Upon a Time in Hollywood

Supporting Actor
Tom Hanks, A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood
Anthony Hopkins, The Two Popes
Al Pacino, The Irishman
Joe Pesci, The Irishman
Brad Pitt, Once Upon a Time in Hollywood

In their defense, Scarlett Johansson can play any race of people, and she’s nominated twice, which means that technically this is a very diverse list. But to be fair, I believe she was playing white people in Marriage Story and Jojo Rabbit, so that kind of cancels out any diversity argument.

The people at the BAFTAs acknowledged that all the acting nominations went to white people. And it’s not their fault. Blame Hollywood! Marc Samuelson, chairman of BAFTA’s film committee, released a statement suggesting that if Hollywood would make diverse movies, then the BAFTAs would vote for them.

“Clearly everybody knows that everybody in the four acting groups of nominees are white, it’s infuriating, we can’t make the industry do something, all we can do is encourage and push and inspire and try to help people coming in at the bottom end.”

The only problem is, the BAFTAs could have done something. And that “something” is nominated non-white people. The BAFTAs nominated the following actors and actresses for the Rising-Star Award: Awkwafina, Jack Lowden, Kaitlyn Dever, Kelvin Harrison Jr., Micheal Ward. Please note that three of the five nominees are people of color. Awkwafina even won the Golden Globe for Best Actress Motion Picture Musical or Comedy this year for The Farewell.

It’s true that Hollywood is so white, it probably needs to wear SPF-100. But it was possible to nominate some people of color for the big four acting categories. Cynthia Erivo was nominated for both a Golden Globe and a SAG award for her role in Harriet, AND she’s British too! Other non-white people with award season buzz have been Lupita Nyong’o for Us, Jamie Foxx for Just Mercy, and Jennifer Lopez for Hustlers.

In less-surprising news, Joker received the most nominations, with 11. The Irishman and Once Upon A Time In Hollywood both received 10. The BAFTA people are probably wishing they could just fast-forward to the night of the ceremony on February 2nd, when any talk of diversity will hopefully be overshadowed by the number of “fucks” that come out of likely winner Joaquin Phoenix’s mouth.

Here’s the rest of the nominees:

Best Film

1917
The Irishman
Joker
Once Upon a Time in Hollywood
Parasite

Outstanding British Film|
1917
Bait
For Sama
Rocketman
Sorry We Missed You
The Two Popes

Outstanding Debut by a British Writer, Director, or Producer
Bait
For Sama
Maiden
Only You
Retablo

Film Not in the English Language
The Farewell
For Sama
Pain and Glory
Parasite
Portrait of a Lady on Fire

Documentary
American Factory
Apollo 11
Diego Maradona
For Sama
The Great Hack

Animated Film
Frozen 2
Klaus
A Shaun the Sheep Movie: Farmageddon
Toy Story 4

Director
Sam Mendes, 1917
Martin Scorsese, The Irishman
Todd Phillips, Joker
Quentin Tarantino, Once Upon a Time in Hollywood
Bong Joon Ho, Parasite

Original Screenplay
Booksmart
Knives Out
Marriage Story
Once Upon a Time in Hollywood
Parasite

Adapted Screenplay
The Irishman
Jojo Rabbit
Joker
Little Women
The Two Popes

Original Score
1917
Jojo Rabbit
Joker
Little Women
Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker

Casting
Joker
Marriage Story
Once Upon a Time in Hollywood
The Personal History of David Copperfield
The Two Popes

Cinematography
1917
The Irishman
Joker
Le Mans ’66
The Lighthouse

Editing
The Irishman
Jojo Rabbit
Joker
Le Mans ’66
Once Upon a Time in Hollywood

Production Design
1917
The Irishman
Jojo Rabbit
Joker
Once Upon a Time in Hollywood

Costume Design
The Irishman
Jojo Rabbit
Judy
Little Women
Once Upon a Time in Hollywood

Makeup & Hair
1917
Bombshell
Joker
Judy
Rocketman

Sound
1917
Joker
Le Mans ’66
Rocketman
Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker

Special Visual Effects
1917
Avengers: Endgame
The Irishman
The Lion King
Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker

British Short Animation
Grandad Was a Romantic
In Her Boots
The Magic Boat

British Short Film
Azaar
Goldfish
Kamali
Learning to Skateboard in a Warzone (If You’re a Girl)
The Trap

Pic: YouTube

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