Here's why the 2020 BAFTA nominations are stirring up such considerable controversy online. Awards season is firmly underway, and as Hollywood dusts itself down from the brutal (but hilarious) takedown Marriage Story.
Over recent years, there has been a concerted effort to address the lack of diversity at major award ceremonies, sparked by the #OscarsSoWhite campaign that followed in the wake of 2016's nominations, which featured a distinct lack of non-white entries for the second year running. Since then, voters' selections been have placed under increased scrutiny in of representation, and some degree of progress has been made as a result. The 2019 Oscars in particular marked a significant step forward in of racial and gender diversity. Unfortunately, the problem has not been solved entirely.
BAFTA have announced their latest list of nominations, and the response online has been justifiably angry. The nominations themselves can't be described as particularly diverse. Despite the achievements of directors such as Greta Gerwig (Jojo Rabbit, respectively).
The default defense of the awards ceremony when coming under this type of fire is to the buck; to claim the problem isn't the lack of diversity in the nominations, it's the lack of diversity in the industry. After all, if people of color aren't given many high profile roles or if women aren't given the opportunity to direct, they have less chance of nomination. BAFTA have already responded to the controversy online, and this appears to be the very line they're taking, with BAFTA chair Marc Samuelson claiming (via Variety), "It’s just a frustration that the industry is not moving as fast as certainly the whole BAFTA team would like it to be."
While representation in Hollywood is certainly a problem, and a contributing factor to the BAFTA furor, Margot Robbie for Once Upon A Time In Hollywood.
With that said, it's vital to stress that the controversy is no slight on the nominated actors and directors themselves. A vast majority of the 2020 nominations are deserved and, obviously, they had no say in their selection. But such a consistent lack of representation across multiple categories is difficult to ignore and, given previous awards controversies, surprisingly short-sighted, especially when voters apparently deemed Robbie and Johnasson worthy of taking up two slots each.
