The royal family remains a positive ambassador of the British Film and Television Academy despite recent scandals and reports of internal conflicts, BAFTA CEO Jane Millichip told Deadline as she readies the arts charity’s 2023 Film Awards.
Sunday’s awards show will be the former Sky Studios exec’s first as BAFTA CEO after being appointed to the role last summer.
This year’s ceremony will also see the Film Awards leave the Royal Albert Hall for a new home in the Royal Festival Hall at London’s Southbank Centre, alongside the introduction of a refreshed broadcasting schedule featuring live segments for the first time in BAFTA history.
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However, in a return to tradition, Prince William, BAFTA President, and Kate Middleton will attend the awards after skipping the ceremony for two consecutive years.
Prince William has been President of BAFTA since 2010, but this year’s ceremony marks his debut at the event as the Prince of Wales, the title he inherited from his father, King Charles III after he ascended to the throne following Queen Elizabeth II’s death in September.
The Film Awards will also be one of William and Kate’s first major public appearances since the release of Prince Harry’s tell-all book Spare. The mega-selling memoir was the latest chapter in a series of recent public interventions from the Duke of Sussex, that have included allegations of racism and exposed more conflict within the institution.
“His Royal Highness has been an incredible supporter of BAFTA since he started as President and patron,” Millichip said of William. “We have bursaries in his name, and he shows a real interest in our leveling up and development schemes.”
Millichip continued to discuss what she described as BAFTA’s long-standing association with the royals, citing Queen Elizabeth II’s decision to gift the royalties from Richard Cawston’s fly-on-the-wall documentary on the family to the Society of Film and Television Arts (a forerunner of BAFTA) in the early 1970s. The donation aided the organization’s move to its current headquarters at 195 Piccadilly in London.
When asked if the royal family were still an appropriate fit for the awards body, Millichip concluded: “I think the royal family has had an incredibly positive effect on BAFTA over the years and continues to.”
Accolades
The nominations for this year’s Film Awards are led by Netflix’s German-language World War I drama All Quiet on the Western Front, which has 14 nods, including Best Film, Director, and Adapted Screenplay. All Quiet’s haul equals the previous record set by Ang Lee’s Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon for the most nominations for a non-English language film in BAFTA history. All Quiet has also clocked the most BAFTA noms for an individual film since The King’s Speech in 2011, which also had 14.
Martin McDonagh’s latest tragicomedy, The Banshees Of Inisherin, and Everything Everywhere All at Once from A24, and Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert trail with ten noms each.
British costume designer Sandy Powell will be honored this year with BAFTA’s Fellowship award – the arts charity’s highest honor.
Powell’s fellowship will be the first time the BAFTA Film Awards has handed out one of its non-competitive honors since the controversy surrounding the body’s decision to hand actor Noel Clarke the Outstanding British Contribution to Cinema Award in 2021.
At the time, the charity had been presented with allegations of sexual misconduct made against the Bulletproof star, first reported by The Guardian newspaper. Clarke vehemently denies wrongdoing. BAFTA said it had attempted to verify the allegations but was unable to do so. The organization ultimately concluded that it would have been “improper” to halt the award.
Clarke’s BAFTA award and membership were later suspended. The actor filed a defamation suit against BAFTA and the Guardian Media Group at London’s High Court in 2022. BAFTA has since been dropped from the lawsuit, and London’s Metropolitan Police ended an investigation into the actor last year, citing a lack of evidence.
“We’ve moved on,” Millichip said when quizzed about whether BAFTA has had to conduct separate investigations following the Clarke saga.
Millichip wouldn’t be drawn on individual cases but added that the arts charity continues to be “very involved” in the creation of new guidelines for the industry around bullying, harassment, and best practice in the workplace.
“That is an area that we continue to work on, encouraging all companies and producers to incorporate those guidelines,” she said.
As previously announced, Mercury Prize-winning rapper Little Simz will perform at the Film Awards. Dame Helen Mirren will lead a tribute to the late Queen Elizabeth II, and the TV broadcast will conclude with the live reveal of four categories: Best Actor, Best Actress, Best Film, and the EE Rising Star Award, presented by Lashana Lynch.
In previous years, the event has been pre-recorded and broadcast with a delay. The ceremony will run from 7 – 9 pm Sunday evening, with a switch to the live broadcast at around 8:30 pm thanks to what Millichip described as military-level scheduling from the production team.
“The entertainment value of the TV coverage is something that we put a lot of thought into, and we hope the viewing public will enjoy that,” Millichip said.
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