The only A-list nominees at this year's Baftas were Lady Gaga and Benedict Cumberbatch — and both lost. Photo / AP
The only A-list nominees at this year's Baftas were Lady Gaga and Benedict Cumberbatch — and both lost. Photo / AP
Opinion
OPINION:
Well, that's the Baftas done for another year. The headlines? Not many, which after two consecutive ceremonies that almost imploded is probably a good thing. Or is it?
Okay, so the Baftas weren't left in another fine mess like after Noel Clarke and his sexual misconduct accusations in 2021(accusations that he has denied). And the academy's president, Prince William, didn't dismiss the night as male, pale and stale.
Yet in the place of scandal came nothing. More people watched Dancing on Ice. Tumbleweed drifted around the Royal Albert Hall as an awards night engineered to be uneventful took the show out of showbusiness.
The elephant in the room was the lack of celebrities in the room. The best director, Jane Campion, whose The Power of the Dog also won best film, wasn't there. Neither was the best actor, Will Smith. Even Jenny Beavan, who lives in London and took best costume design, didn't show. Paul Thomas Anderson, whose Licorice Pizza won best original screenplay, was Awol. Prince William only appeared on a video. None of these people needs Bafta, but as award after award was handed to a stand-in or nobody, it was clear that Bafta needed them.
Things to learn, then, for 2023: build on the positives. Credit to voters for picking Joanna Scanlan for best actress, giving her small British film After Love a global stage. Also, when Ariana DeBose and Troy Kotsur won their best supporting actress and actor prizes, both were thrilled — they are new to the circus and winning meant a lot. There was joy in smaller slots too. The Black Cop won best short film and the emotional response of the titular former policeman Gamal Turawa was extraordinary. It showed how crucial Bafta can be to people. This was the British arts charity lifting up the British arts. They should do more of it.
Ariana Debose brought a welcome ray of sunshine to the Baftas. Photo / AP
There were reasons for the no-shows. First, of course, Covid — people are still wary of it. Second, and more significantly, there were rival ceremonies in Los Angeles that key nominees decided were more important. It was a crammed weekend of Directors Guild and Critics' Choice — those shows moved into Bafta weekend only after being postponed due to Omicron in January, and next year will be different. Yet, when faced with a choice, it's galling for Bafta that movie VIPs chose somebody else. The only A-list nominees there were Benedict Cumberbatch and Lady Gaga — and both lost.
How could the event improve? For a start it could use videos. Before the ceremony I met Emma Baehr, Bafta's director of awards and content. "We don't do satellite link-ups," she said. "It's so alienating for the audience at home to look at a screen into another room. You have to be there in person to collect your award." I am not so sure. Perhaps giving nominees a video option will mean even fewer turn up, but I would have taken Smith accepting his best actor prize remotely rather than another "he is gutted he couldn't be here". Star power is star power, even on Zoom.
Awards shows are in flux, however. The Brits are, with an all-time low of 2.7 million viewers this year. And many issues faced by the Baftas are in the in-tray for next Sunday's Oscars. In recent years they have also faced a dwindling TV audience.
"Of course the celebration of film-making is important, but we can't just think about the industry in the room," Baehr says. "Our content is also accessed globally on social media." The last time the Baftas happened in person, in 2020, it drew an audience of 3.5 million. Last Sunday it only managed 2.4 million (Dancing on Ice skated to 3.4 million). That counts, no matter how many #bafta impressions were made.
Host Rebel Wilson's reviews were harsh. Photo / AP
And on Sunday the court of social media was brutal. People took against the host, Rebel Wilson, who managed to be terrific and flat — often in the same joke. Nobody liked the sandworm. It was better in the Royal Albert Hall, where I mostly watched Gaga watch other people — in awe of Shirley Bassey, bowing to Naomi Campbell, clapping a dig at Priti Patel — but she was a one-woman show in a room full of thousands who struggled to stand out.
For an event that wanted to make memorable moments go viral, there was little to actually remember. Everything ran like clockwork and nobody tweets about clockwork. It needed anarchy. Randomness. After Scanlan won I heard her cackling with delight backstage. That was great. As it was when Wilson spoke about a film she was cast in that lost funding. "F*** you, Lionsgate!" she said, presumably to a suit in the audience. It is a shame that was cut from the broadcast, yet it kept in the cheap moment when the host used the biggest night in British film to puff her new film. (Senior Year is on Netflix from May.)
Something else that needs sorting is the voting. Every year 233 films enter the Baftas and new rules, introduced in 2020 after criticism about the lack of diversity, stipulate that voters have to see all the ones ascribed to them. Yet they don't. "I guarantee people have only watched three to four this year and made up their votes," an anonymous voter told me. He raised problems with the online platform — it was hard to link up the screening website to your TV. "It's just a really old organisation that cannot cope with new tech."
Naomi Campbell at the Baftas. Photo / AP
Which is why Coda did well. Coda, a really average film about a deaf family, won best adapted screenplay and best supporting actor, and is on a late charge for the Oscars. Why? "Coda was on Apple and available to watch since the summer," says my Deep Throat. With the platform to view films causing frustration, he thinks people just watched what was already on streaming services. That's a problem, given that the future will bring a lot more films released straight to streamers.
Growing pains, then. But Bafta could be telling a much more positive story. Production is booming in the UK. Last year £5.64 billion (NZ$10.7b) was spent on making television and film here — a record. That was barely acknowledged in the ceremony, yet it should be. Celebrate British crews making blockbusters that used to be made in Hollywood. And, like the Bafta TV awards, celebrate British actors and filmmakers more. They are the ones who know the importance of Bafta's work. And they turn up. The more people who turn up? The more enjoyable and memorable it will be. In a world of competing awards nights, the best need to be distinctive.
