Actors are staging a protest against the lack of diversity in the BAFTA awards.
The diversity debate against the film industry’s history of casting white actors for lead and supporting roles is ramping up not only in the United States but, across the world.
According to reports, a number of protestors are expected to stage a “peaceful”demonstration outside the British Academy of Film and Television Awards on February 14th.
The Creative of Colour, an organization led by writer and actor Leon Herbet, who is known fo rthe movies Alien 3 and Batman, will be protesting outside of London’s Royal Opera House ahead of the BAFTA awards on Sunday night in a bid to draw attention to the lack of “diversity, opportunity and inclusion” within the British film industry.
The group has been campaigning against the British film industry’s history of not casting non-white actors on Twitter by using the hashtag #BaftaBlackout, echoing the sentiment of #OscarsSoWhite.
#OscarsSoWhite unleashed a major backlash across social media soon after 2016 Oscar nominations saw an all-Caucasian line-up provoking conversations of Hollywood being another racist institution.
“We protested at the awards in 1994, 1995 and 1996. Today, in 2016 – 20 years on – absolutely nothing has changed.”
Herbert added: “We protested at the awards in 1994, 1995 and 1996. Today, in 2016 – 20 years on – absolutely nothing has changed.” He called on the industry to adopt a quota system and stop the “lip service” on the issue.
Unlike this year’s Academy Awards, this year’s BAFTA awards had a more diverse and inclusive list of nominees. Oscar-snubbed Idris Elba and Benicio del Toro are both up for Best Supporting Actor for their respective roles in Beasts of No Nation and Sicario, while The Revenant and Carol are up for nine BAFTA nominations.
BAFTA, which is an independent charity, announced they had plans of increasing diversity amongst their members, way before the Oscars backlash. However, according to reports BAFTA has not actively chosen to increase the number of ethnic minority actors to present awards.
