Entries open 5 October for the 2023 BAFTA Television Awards and BAFTA Television Craft Awards

BAFTA today confirms the rules, eligibility and award categories for the 2023 BAFTA Television Awards and BAFTA Television Craft Awards. Entries open tomorrow for the biggest celebration of excellence across British and international television production and broadcasting.

For the first time, the BAFTA TV and BAFTA TV Craft Awards ceremonies will take place next spring - at The Brewery and the Royal Festival Hall respectively.

Following an annual review of the BAFTA TV and BAFTA TV Craft Awards voting categories and rules, the BAFTA TV Committee, in close consultation with its sector peers, has made changes to reflect the ever-evolving landscape of the TV industry. With a focus on addressing historic areas of under-representation, as well as showcasing and celebrating excellence, key updates for 2023 are set out below. The full set of rules, eligibility requirements and timeline is on BAFTA’s Awards webpage here.

The BAFTA TV Awards ceremony will be broadcast on BBC One, BBC One HD and BBC iPlayer. Red carpet interviews with nominees and guests will be streamed live across BAFTA and BBC’s social channels, offering audiences an exclusive front row seat as nominees and guests arrive. Further details including the host for the 2023 Awards will be announced at a later date.

Sara Putt, Deputy Chair of BAFTA and Chair of the BAFTA Television Committee, said: “Television and the way in which audiences consume content is ever-evolving, and it’s essential we adapt alongside. As a mirror to the industry, we are in the privileged and unique position of being able to drive and influence positive change. I’m delighted that the updates to our 2023 BAFTA TV Awards announced today including specific interventions to address historic gender inequity, reflecting our commitment to widening representation, amplifying key craft roles across both ceremonies and levelling the playing field for all. Developed with BAFTA’s Television Committee and through close consultation with our sector peers and members, these changes ensure that our Awards celebrate excellence on and off the screen, whilst remaining competitive. Entries open tomorrow – we and our members can’t wait to get going on voting.”

BAFTA Craft Awards Category Changes

Director Categories: Factual, Fiction and Multi-Camera

The top three male and top three female directors from the Round One: membership vote will now automatically go through to jury consideration. This new intervention, a first for the TV Craft Awards, will increase the visibility of women at longlisting stage, with the longer-term aim to encourage a greater representation of women considered. This sits alongside BAFTA’s wider charitable work to level the playing field for all.

Original Music

Original music composition continues to grow exponentially with a brilliantly diverse output. The Original Music category will become two: Original Music: Fiction and Original Music: Factual – in recognition of the high volume and quality of entries.  

Category Updates [TV Awards]

Entertainment Performance

The top three male and top three female performers from the Round One: membership vote will now automatically go through to jury consideration. This new intervention, a first for the TV Awards, will increase the visibility of women at longlisting stage, with the longer-term aim to encourage a greater representation of women considered. This sits alongside BAFTA’s wider charitable work to level the playing field for all.

International

Both non-scripted and scripted programmes have always been eligible for the international category, but historically there has been a prevalence of scripted programmes making it through to jury consideration. For 2023 onwards, the top three non-scripted and top three scripted programmes will now automatically be longlisted.

Eligibility dates

The eligibility window for both Awards is between 1 January and 31 December 2022 – the full timeline and entry deadlines are available here.

Cross-Awards activity

• Parity across categories and ensuring every category is competitive relative to entry numbers is central to BAFTA’s annual cross-awards planning. With the exception of News and Soap & Continuing Drama categories, all other categories must have 12 entries in order to proceed. For any category with under 20 entries, three nominations will be announced, or categories may be merged in order to run.
• Diversity & Inclusion: BAFTA studies entry data across its Awards to deepen understanding and provide insights into how the screen industries are progressing on diversity and inclusion and highlight areas of underrepresentation. This data informs rule changes as well as interventions and initiatives offered by BAFTA to address sector issues. 
• Bullying & Harassment:  Entrants will be asked for details of their company policies on bullying and harassment. This is not mandatory for the 2023 Awards, but is encouraged to inform future activity and is consistent across all BAFTA Awards, including Film and Games.

Juries are responsible for deciding the majority of BAFTA TV and TV Craft category nominees and winners, with the remainder decided by Chapters. Appointed by the BAFTA TV Committee, BAFTA juries include an even gender split alongside a host of wider best practice considerations, as set out in our rulebook here. Chapters are representative of our membership, which includes an ongoing strategic priority to broaden and diversify, as part of the 120 recommendations put forward in our BAFTA 2020 Review. This landmark report on solutions for levelling the playing field was created through consultation with 400 industry and sector peers. Further information is here. 

 

ENDS

For further information, please contact:

Dingile Kasote, PR and Communications Officer at BAFTA

E [email protected]

 

Catie Poust, PR & Communications Manager at BAFTA

E [email protected]