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Bafta changes criteria for two awards to increase diversity

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Foggy

Member
There's a bunch of ways this could go sideways. Curious to see if they can stick to their principles on this.
 

Zaph

Member
Actually care about? Yep you busted me, I, an American of Mexican, French Canadian and Native American descent was secretly trying to continue majority white production focus and practices in the UK by asking a question about the criteria of one institution's award eligibility practices.

Saying it sounded a bit odd was clearly a problematic statement.

Pat yourself on the back.

My response was to biggersmaller. I multiquoted you while forgetting to respond.

To answer your question - no. That person would be a qualifying factor, and the studio could do one of a dozen other things (both pre or post production) to gain another qualifying factor.

It's actually quite an accomplishment for your film not to qualify.

I agree. I just have to remember that this isn't what their voting block think is the best British film but the best British film which meets diversity criteria.

Make sure you read all these documents too. http://www.oscars.org/oscars/rules-eligibility

That way you know the Best Film Oscar isn't the best film, but the best film that meets their criteria.
 
This is neither censorship or removal of freedom...

when i read "diverse" i only thought about ethnicities being represented by actors instead of all the other things it refers to.

and the freedom thing, how the BAFTAs are peeking into filmmakers' processes reminded me of the new laws that let police search your web history whenever they want and the one that restricts access to adult material.

It's actually quite an accomplishment for your film not to qualify.

let's just say a group of friends, all guys, makes an amazing film about their lives and friendship in England. would it be eligible?
 

Zaph

Member
when i read "diverse" i only thought about ethnicities being represented by actors instead of all the other things it refers to.

and the freedom thing, how the BAFTAs are peeking into filmmakers' processes reminded me of the new laws that let police search your web history whenever they want and the one that restricts access to adult material.



let's just say a group of friends, all guys, makes an amazing film about their lives and friendship in England. would it be eligible?

Read through the thread, the question has been answered multiple times.

Judging by the assumptions you just admitted making, might be worth putting some effort into acquiring information independently?
 

Vox

Banned
So if you make a movie set in the Middle Ages and decide to make it as historically accurate as possible, you're automatically not eligible? Is this correct?
 
Diversity is obviously good in most cases but it shouldn't be required.

Not everything requires or benefits from it.

A work of art certainly shouldn't be penailsed or snubbed due to a lack of diversity.

But ultimately who cares about awards anyway.
 
1 - agreed

2 - does BAFTA actually "monitor" production now? do we know that? i'm thinking of a hypothetical situation where, say, there's a personnel dispute, and someone is let go and "ruins" their qualification

Monitor is literally know whose working on the show, what it's about. They do that already by virtue of knowing who to nominate.

They aren’t likely going to be sending out messages to productions, they'll just let them do what they want and if they don't meet the qualifications so be it.
 

Honey Bunny

Member
Diversity is obviously good in most cases but it shouldn't be required.

Not everything requires or benefits from it.

A work of art certainly shouldn't be penailsed or snubbed due to a lack of diversity.

But ultimately who cares about awards anyway.

Agreed. But unfortunately these awards can be important financially.
 
It's amazing that with requirements that loose people are acting like this is some blow to creativity. If filmakers cant neet thlse requirements i dont understand how the fuck anyone can claim it was to meet an artistic vision. So your vision is all rich 30-40 white males doing everything?
 

Par Score

Member
Diversity is obviously good in most cases but it shouldn't be required.

Why shouldn't it be required? Why should we allow white-only technical crews, male-only writing staff, straight-only production teams?

Not everything requires or benefits from it.

Name me one thing that doesn't or couldn't benefit from greater diversity, from a wider and deeper pool of talent, from new and interesting perspectives. Please. I'd love to know.

A work of art certainly shouldn't be penailsed or snubbed due to a lack of diversity.

Why not? Greater diversity is a goal that should be strived for, so why not punish those that choose not to pursue it? Why pander to the racists, sexists and homophobes that seek to stamp out diverse voices at every turn?

But ultimately who cares about awards anyway.

I don't know, you obviously do because you came into this thread.
 

Riposte

Member
According to the Slate article in the OP you are "leaning on the tired crutch of “artistic freedom”" and apparently "that's the sword you want to die on". I agree with you though.

The Slate article is crappy and there's no reason to read it over the BBC one that's linked in it (and I linked in my post), because the latter has more information and a less combative tone.
 

Moonkid

Member
Interesting how the common perception of diversity in this thread seems to be about race. It's an instinctive bias for one type of diversity we seem to have, which hopefully initiatives like these will help address in the future.
 

Eumi

Member
No, no I'm not a fan of this at all.

Like, a white person should still be able to make a film starring white people for white people. I'm on board with the senior roles part but the other two I'm not a big fan of.

And yes, I know most films are already made by white people for white people, that's not my point. My point is that two of those three requirements could not be met by a film doing exactly what it is setting out to do and succeeding in it. Unless I'm misunderstanding them (which is entirely possible)?
 

Enzom21

Member
No, no I'm not a fan of this at all.

Like, a white person should still be able to make a film starring white people for white people. I'm on board with the senior roles part but the other two I'm not a big fan of.

And yes, I know most films are already made by white people for white people, that's not my point. My point is that two of those three requirements could not be met by a film doing exactly what it is setting out to do and succeeding in it. Unless I'm misunderstanding them (which is entirely possible)?

What are "movies for white people"?
 

Doc_Drop

Member
No, no I'm not a fan of this at all.

Like, a white person should still be able to make a film starring white people for white people. I'm on board with the senior roles part but the other two I'm not a big fan of.

And yes, I know most films are already made by white people for white people, that's not my point. My point is that two of those three requirements could not be met by a film doing exactly what it is setting out to do and succeeding in it. Unless I'm misunderstanding them (which is entirely possible)?
No-one is stopping anything from happening,two awards have had their requirements changed in order to promote diversity in film making.
 

Eumi

Member
What are "movies for white people"?
I'd assume movies made by white people that are mostly marketed towards white people.

Are you trying to paint me as saying that movies can only be watched by a certain group? Because target audiences aren't exactly reinforced by law and I'm pretty sure most people know that.
 

Enzom21

Member
I'd assume movies made by white people that are mostly marketed towards white people.

Are you trying to paint me as saying that movies can only be watched by a certain group? Because target audiences aren't exactly reinforced by law and I'm pretty sure most people know that.

I'm not trying to paint you as anything. I wanted clarification about a particular part of your ridiculous post.
 

Seesaw15

Member
Oh boy. This thread is going down in the history books folks.

All in favor of this. Hopefully it gives some different people in the industry a leg up in front of or behind the camera.
 
This thread tho lol. No need to read the OP apparently. Would somebody PLEASE think of the middle class middle aged white men!!? They already have such a hard time winning awards. This will force then to tell stories about diverse subjects and gasp hire a diverse crew to make it!! Who wants that!!??
I'll ignore all the numerous requirements that were already in place for years.. those don't matter these creatives found ways to make it work, but THIS is so hard and unfair.
Some of my favorite movies excluded minorites/disabled people/women in the writing staff and crew. Only a white dude can hold a boom mike.
 

Eumi

Member
I'm not trying to paint you as anything. I wanted clarification about a particular part of your ridiculous post.
Could you point out what part is ridiculous? I don't mean that as in I'm right, I mean what part is like, laughably wrong? Cause I'm starting to think I've missed something here.

I guess my main point is I'd prefer they just give more points to movies that hit the requirements then not even consider movies that don't, but at the end of the day it's their awards and if they think this'll help then they probably know more about it than me.
 

Dalibor68

Banned
This thread tho lol. No need to read the OP apparently. Would somebody PLEASE think of the middle class middle aged white men!!? They already have such a hard time winning awards. This will force then to tell stories about diverse subjects and gasp hire a diverse crew to make it!! Who wants that!!??
I'll ignore all the numerous requirements that were already in place for years.. those don't matter these creatives found ways to make it work, but THIS is so hard and unfair.
Some of my favorite movies excluded minorites/disabled people/women in the writing staff and crew. Only a white dude can hold a boom mike.

The clickbaity title and the very selective quoting in the OP in terms of leaving out the exceptions for small studios probably didn't help.
 

Fuchsdh

Member
I'm still not entirely sure how I feel about this, but to BAFTA's credit they are basically saying diversity can be found in front of the camera or behind, it's not like they're demanding quotas or certain subject matter. The only weird bit to me is the "well if it panders to some minority group that counts as diversity" bullet point. But maybe that's just their tacit admission that the BAFTAs like all awards are full of shit and it's still celebrating a money-making business as much as it is celebrating art.

And yeah, if you don't want a BAFTA you don't have to do a thing. I'm wondering if the awards have enough heft to make a difference broadly, whether domestic or abroad.
 

Doc_Drop

Member
And yeah, if you don't want a BAFTA you don't have to do a thing. I'm wondering if the awards have enough heft to make a difference broadly, whether domestic or abroad.

It's probably the highest honour you could receive in the UK film industry,will help open doors,spread notoriety, if this is helping that happen in a diverse group of people,those people finding success would then be able to try and help others further. At least that seems to be the idea
 

cdyhybrid

Member
Good move.

It's nice to talk about wanting film to be diverse, it's another thing entirely to actually try and make it happen.
 

Fuchsdh

Member
It's probably the highest honour you could receive in the UK film industry,will help open doors,spread notoriety, if this is helping that happen in a diverse group of people,those people finding success would then be able to try and help others further. At least that seems to be the idea

Oh I definitely understand the reasoning, and BAFTA makes its own rules, if they want to prioritize this more power to them. The overall effect or not doesn't make that a poor choice, I'm just wondering how much tangible impact it'll actually have, and whether or not they'll be enough data to validate their decision down the line.
 

Bold One

Member
No, no I'm not a fan of this at all.

Like, a white person should still be able to make a film starring white people for white people.

tell%20me%20more_zpspryhzo2c.gif
 

Nepenthe

Member
It's not even the lack of reading comprehension that bothers me. It's the reflexive defensiveness against seeing colored faces on screen at all, as well as the erasure of gender, sexual, disabled, and lower class minorities from the discussion (which can be white too but w/e) all culminating in a sneaking suspicion that people think only the best films can be made by and be about straight, white, middle class guys while ignoring that certainly such systemic biases may have actually prevented the best films from winning awards beforehand. Certainly BAFTA hasn't gotten it right every single time before, but seemingly no one had a problem with the way the awards were conducted before. Hmmmmmmmmmm.

So I assume a movie like the King's Speech would no longer be eligible because King George didn't have a friend from the bad neighborhood pop by for a beer or a black buddy he played poker with on Fridays?

Also, tell me more about what you think about poor and black people.
 

besada

Banned
No, no I'm not a fan of this at all.

Like, a white person should still be able to make a film starring white people for white people.

There's nothing stopping them from making an all white film with and all white cast with no women, disabled people, etc, about upper middle class issues. Nothing at all. They just aren't going to get a BAFTA. Like all awards, the awarder decides the criteria for consideration, and, like all awards, edge case movies wind up not being eligible sometimes. This is another criteria if you want to win a BAFTA. It doesn't stop anyone from making whatever movie they choose to make.
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So I assume a movie like the King's Speech would no longer be eligible because King George didn't have a friend from the bad neighborhood pop by for a beer or a black buddy he played poker with on Fridays?
Your weird inclusions aside, The King's Speech had a major role for a woman actor, a woman co producer, a woman casting agent, production designer, set decorator, costume designer, multiple women assistant directors, etc. I imagine, without seeing a photo of the cast, that some of the major or senior roles behind screen are also filled by people of color. As has been pointed out before, you'd have to work hard to create a modern movie capable of winning a BAFTA that doesn't get over the hurdle.
 

Chumley

Banned
After reading it over again it seems that the quota is actually very loose. Like, as long as you either feature in front of or behind the camera at least some (doesn't even define what percentage) disabled people or minorities you qualify. I think. Seems good in my book, just encourages more outreach and isn't terribly strict in the first place.
 

BowieZ

Banned
No, no I'm not a fan of this at all.

Like, a white person should still be able to make a film starring white people for white people. I'm on board with the senior roles part but the other two I'm not a big fan of.
It's clear you didn't read the OP or any of the thread.
 
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