Why BAFTA has shunned the Oscars A-list

Last week, the nominations for the BAFTA film awards were announced and very swiftly afterwards the annual chorus of lamentation started up. For whatever poor old BAFTA does, a vocal segment of film fans and critics alike will declare themselves unhappy. BAFTAs-bashing, it can often seem, is how those in cultural circles like to keep themselves warm and entertained in the darkest and dullest months of the year. As if that weren’t enough, hot on BAFTA’s sweaty heels come the Oscar nominations, providing the opportunity to grumble on an international scale.

As recently as 2020, grave accusations of ‘whitewashing’ were levelled at the British Academy, when it somehow managed to locate not one actor of colour worthy of nomination in the four acting categories. This is not the problem for the 2022 iteration; three of the six nominees for Best Actor, for example, are non-white and the favourite in that race is Will Smith for his powerhouse performance as the phenomenally driven man-with-a-plan Richard Williams, father of tennis stars Venus and Serena.