BAFTA / Marc Hoberman

[DONE] Winning at the Television Awards

20 March 09

For over 50 years the British Academy Television Awards have been recognised as a mark of excellence. Winning a Television BAFTA stands out as such a highly esteemed accolade because the Award represents professional recognition from within the industry itself.

THE AWARD EVERYONE WANTS TO WIN

The British Academy of Film and Television Arts celebrates the art forms of the moving image – Film, TV and Video Games. The Academy is made up of 5000 members in the UK and 1500 from the USA. Our members are creatives and professionals working in the film, television and video games industries: directors, producers, artists, actors, developers, publishers, cameramen, writers, make-up artists, editors, sound engineers and so on.

The Academy’s mission is to support, develop and promote all the art forms of the moving image - by identifying and rewarding excellence, inspiring practitioners and benefiting the public. Our annual awards ceremonies are the celebration and promotion of excellence; not only do they reward practitioners with the BAFTA mask, but by showcasing the best, they demonstrate to the public that which is deemed to be of the highest quality.

The BAFTA Award is the most coveted because it is voted for by BAFTA’s members – fellow actors, producers and writers – in other words, from the recipients’ peer group and a pool of expert knowledge.

WHO VOTES FOR THE TELEVISION AWARDS?

Broadcasters (BBC, ITV, Five, C4, Sky etc) and independent production companies enter the programmes which they are most proud of in each of the Television Awards categories. We circulate a list of these programmes to the members who cast their votes for those programmes and performances which they think are the best. Members can vote for up to 6 programmes and performances in each category.

We then inform the broadcasters of the top six programmes voted for by the membership in each category and give each broadcaster the opportunity to add one more programme per category onto the list.

DVDs of the programmes which make up the shortlist are then sent out to a jury of around nine experts who specialise in that category (sound, editing, directing, acting etc.). After watching the programmes again at home they come to the Academy’s headquarters to debate with their fellow jurors the merits of each programme.

The Juries then decide which four programmes and performances should be nominated for a BAFTA. Jury members collectively decide upon the nominations, but when it comes to deciding the winner, that is done by each juror casting their written vote in private. In other words, the winner is not known until that magic moment when the envelope is opened in the Television Awards ceremony.

HOW DO PEOPLE BECOME A MEMBER OF BAFTA?

To become a member of BAFTA, each applicant has to have made a significant professional contribution to the industries of film, television or video games. This makes them uniquely qualified to vote in each of our Awards. Applicants must have worked for at least five years in one of these industries (or any combination of these) and be recommended and backed by two existing members.

• Find out more about BAFTA membership
• Return to the Television Awards

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