FILM
K
rish Majumdar was the first
person of colour to become
chairman of the British Acad-
emy of Film and Television
Arts. The award-winning tele-
vision producer, whose Ben-
gali parents came to south Wales in the
1960s, arrived with a seemingly straight-
forward mission: “I am from an under-
represented group and would never
want a Bafta because of the colour of my
skin. I just want my work to be seen.”
Yet the task of ensuring Bafta’s
annual awards ceremony is no longer
the preserve of the male, pale and stale
has coincided with the organisation’s
worst crisis in its 74-year history. Let’s
rewind two years to the awards cere-
mony in 2020. There were 20 acting
nominations that year and all went to
white actors. Prince William, president
of Bafta, told a primetime audience of
millions: “We find ourselves talking
again about the need to do more to
ensure diversity. That cannot be right.”
It was humiliating. Majumdar led an
immediate review that seven months
later reformed voting to such an extent
that 16 out of 24 acting slots went to
minorities last year. Some turnaround.
Champagne all round.
It soon went flat. Noel Clarke, an
industry insider best known for the film
Kidulthood, also received Bafta’s high-
est accolade, the award for outstanding
British contribution to cinema. It is one
of the few awards in the gift of the acad-
emy, not voted for by its members or
the public.
“When we announced it,” says
Amanda Berry, Bafta’s long-serving
chief executive, “the reaction was over-
whelmingly good.” Bafta was reach-
ing a new audience. “We were
celebrating a film-maker who
hadn’t been celebrated else-
where — that was important for
us. We had one day when it was
really positive.”
In the days between
announcing that Clarke had wonthat something’s an ‘open secret’, but
the people giving him the award had
not heard about these things.”
“This [episode] showed the industry
hadn’t done what it needed to support
women,” Berry says. “People didn’t feel
there was a trusted place to go. Broad-
casters also had information we had but
continued to work with [Clarke]. Systems
were in place. So let’s make sure they’re
trusted. And that people feel safe.”
On to something more positive and
this year’s Bafta nominations, for a
show next month that everyone hopes
will be controversy-free.
It is the second year of voting using
the changes put in place by the review
and again the results are more diverse
than in 2020. Majumdar’s review intro-
duced more than 120 changes to every-
thing from Bafta’s membership to how
many films its 7,000 voters are expected
to watch. “Bafta is not political,” he
says, “but there are certain societal
issues, like diversity, that for the good of
the industry it’s important we influence.
We heard of people at events feeling
ostracised.” Sometimes, Majumdar
says, he would break down at reports of
those who left the industry because of
racism. Or disabled people who could
not — quite literally — get into the room.
“But we keep stressing everything is
on merit. There are no quotas for final
nominations.” However in the first
round of voting a rule stipulates that,
for best director, there have to be ten
films by men, ten by women — surely
that’s a quota? “We debated this,”
Majumdar says. “And people didn’t
want quotas in final nominations so
there is no guarantee of the final list —
it would be called tokenism. If there
were six male directors shortlisted this
year, I’d be perfectly fine with that
because the system is fairer.” Last week
the Brit awards merged their best male
and female solo categories into artist of
the year awards. Will Bafta follow suit?
“That was part of the review discus-
sion,” Berry says. “And it will be dis-
cussed again.”
It is a shame, though, that once
again there is no Bafta nomination for
the two-time Oscar-winner Denzel
Washington. He even played Macbeth
this year; could he be any more British?
Berry and Majumdar laugh. They know
it is absurd but repeat that it is all on
merit. “Who would you take out to
include Denzel?” Berry asks.
Easy — Leonardo DiCaprio.
She smiles. This is how she
wants the awards to be: a
discussion about films. cThe 2022 EE Bafta Film
awards are held at the Royal
Albert Hall on March 13and the ceremony taking place, Bafta
heard of anonymous claims of abuse by
Clarke but could not substantiate them.
Then, a couple of weeks after the cere-
mony, The Guardian published allega-
tions from 20 women of Clarke’s verbal
abuse, bullying and sexual harassment
— claims he denies. His award was
taken away and his Bafta membership
suspended. But the damage was done.
“We didn’t have any first-hand allega-
tions until The Guardian reported it,”
Majumdar says. “People read all the
stuff and went, ‘Oh, you knew all that?’”
“No,” Berry says, shaking her head.
“No, we didn’t,” Majumdar repeats. “As
soon as we did his membership was sus-
pended. That fact got lost. There wasn’t
a first-hand allegation given to
us and that’s partly because
people were scared of giving
information they might have
been identified through.”In their first interview
since the Noel Clarke
debacle of last year’s
awards ceremony, Bafta
bosses Krish Majumdar
and Amanda Berry
answer their critics
can baFTa bOUncE bacK?
Yet there is still anger that nobody at
Bafta lost their job. “People don’t know
the story,” Majumdar insists. He says
Bafta took advice from the police and
the #MeToo pressure group Time’s Up,
and set up an intermediary to help any-
one to go on record. “A few weeks later
we got specific allegations about Char-
lie Hanson.” The After Life producer
was accused of sexual assault, which
he denies. “We were able to suspend
Hanson immediately.”
The outstanding British contribution
to cinema award is now on pause. Can
Bafta ensure that such a debacle isn’t
repeated? “Look, we’re an arts
charity,” Majumdar replies.
“We don’t have investigatory
powers and people can be
scared to talk. Some may sayThere wasn’t a first-hand
allegation given to us
against Noel Clarke
Krish Majumdar
Brit pack Amanda Berry and, below,
Noel Clarke and Krish MajumdarANTHONY HARVEY/SHUTTERSTOCK. INSETS: DAVID FISHER/SHUTTERSTOCK, MIKE MARSLAND/GETTY IMAGESJONATHAN DEAN
INTERVIEW
8 13 February 2022