The 7,000 voters in the Bafta Film Awards are watching “many” more films in the early stage of the process than they were last year, according to figures released yesterday by BAFTA.
The first round of voting opens yesterday (January 12) and for the first time this year, all eligible films have been made available to watch via the dedicated online portal Bafta View. As of today, there have been 80,000 streams of films compared to 20,000 streams at the same point in the voting process last year.
Some distributors are also mailing DVDs to voters and physical screenings in cinemas for voters were held in late 2020 before the present UK lockdown was introduced.
Ensuring voters watch as many films as possible is one of the cornerstones of Bafta’s ongoing overhaul of its membership and voting procedures.
Some of the changes announced in September 2020 include three rounds of voting in each category, up from two in most categories. Each voter now receives a randomised list of 15 films they must watch as well as many others as possible.
Bafta also pledged to diversify its voting cohort by inviting 1,000 new members from under-represented groups to join over the next two years at a reduced rate of £99 for the first two years. Around 300 people have been invited to date, of which 169 have joined.
The organisation has asked all new and existing members to complete a survey that includes questions about their background, race and gender, among other things, before being allowed to vote. (“Prefer not to say” is a permitted answer to all questions.) According to Bafta, 86% of film voters have responded to the survey so far.
“We’re not doing any positive discrimination or guaranteeing diversity,” said Bafta chair Krishnendu Majumdar. “All the interventions are just trying to make people be slightly more conscious in voting and seeing more work.”
The Bafta Film Awards will take place on April 11, two months later than usual due to the pandemic. “We are looking at various scenarios as to what form the awards will take,” the organisation confirmed.
