Our brothers and sisters across the pond are also dealing with a lack of diversity at awards shows.
The British Academy of Film and Television Arts released the 2020 nominees for the upcoming BAFTAs and every one of the major acting nominees this year is White.
The Joaquin Phoenix-led Joker leads the way in nominations, including a Leading Actor nom for its star, while Margot Robbie was nominated twice in the same category; once for her turn in Bombshell and a nomination for her turn as Sharon Tate in Once Upon A Time in Hollywood, a role that was widely criticized for its limited dialogue.
Marc Samuelson, chair of BAFTA’s film committee, told Variety, “Infuriating lack of diversity in the acting noms. It’s just a frustration that the industry is not moving as fast as certainly the whole BAFTA team would like it to be.”
Emma Baehr, director of awards and membership at BAFTA, added, “We would like there to be more diversity in the nominations, but this continues to be an industry-wide issue. We’d like to see more diverse nominations and we will work harder and push the industry more. But that shouldn’t take away from those who were nominated [this year].”
While the main categories are all-white, the BAFTAs EE Rising Star nominees were more diverse, including two Black actors Kelvin Harrison Jr. (Waves) and Micheal Ward (Netflix’s Top Boy).