BAFTA reveals longlist for the EE British Academy Film Awards in 2021

The British Academy of Film & Television Arts (BAFTA) today revealed the longlists for the EE British Academy Film Awards in 2021.

The publication of the longlists follows the BAFTA 2020 Review, whereby over 120 wide-ranging changes were introduced across voting, membership and campaigning to address a lack of diversity in the 2020 Film Awards nominations.

As part of these changes, a new longlisting initial round was introduced for the EE British Academy Film Awards resulting in three rounds of voting.

Round One voting, which took place from 12 to 26 January, produced the longlists in all categories announced today.

Every category in this round was voted on by a craft chapter, opt-in chapter or jury, with the exception of Best Film which was voted for by all film voting members.

Chapters are made up of a minimum of 100 BAFTA members who hold specialist knowledge in the relevant craft. From this year, the acting categories became chapterised to align with the other craft chapters. Members are also invited annually to opt-in to up to three chapters including Outstanding British Film, Documentary, Film Not in the English Language and Animated Film.  

Juries are made up of industry experts, with each jury comprised of people from a diverse range of backgrounds, experience, gender, location and age groups.

Round Two voting, which takes place from 19 February to 1 March, will determine the nominations which will be announced on 9 March. Round Three voting will take place from 25 March to 7 April and will determine the winners, to be announced at the EE British Academy Film Awards on Sunday 11 April. The EE Rising Star Award nominations will be announced on Wednesday 3 March.

For the very first time, all entered films were made available on BAFTA View, the online viewing portal. Voting members were able to access every entered film, allowing them to watch as many films as possible from a much earlier stage in the process than in previous years. This has led to over 120,000 streams to date.

As part of the new Round One voting, all film voting members were assigned a randomly selected sample of 15 films as recommended viewing ahead of voting. This ensured all entered films were each individually viewed hundreds of times and this encouraged voting members to consider a wider range of films.

In Round Two of voting, members are required to watch all longlisted films before they can vote for the nominations in Best Film, their craft chapter and opt-in chapters to ensure all films are given due consideration.

Throughout the Review, many participants discussed the challenges of voting with a wide range of influences acting upon them, from marketing to our own preconceptions. Many members asked to learn more about the biases which might affect voting. To address this, BAFTA worked with Huma Qazi, an experienced diversity and inclusion expert, and writing, directing and acting talent from BAFTA Elevate, to create three short conscious voter films to share some research into this area with voters. Voting members were asked to watch these films before voting.

The publication of the longlists today is just one of the many changes implemented from the Review so far and demonstrates that real change is taking place. This is an ongoing process and BAFTA is committed to this change long-term, not just this year.

BAFTA Film Committee Chair Marc Samuelson said: “The longlists announced today reflect some of the key changes we’ve already begun to implement as part of our ongoing Review. A big thank you goes to our membership for embracing these changes so positively and quickly especially during this challenging time. BAFTA View is already helping level the playing field for all entrants this year and we’re really pleased that over 120,000 streams have taken place. I hope today’s longlists shows you that we remain committed to change in all aspects of the BAFTA’s awards on an ongoing basis.”

BAFTA Chief Executive Amanda Berry OBE said: “The film industry has had an incredibly difficult year and I would like to thank the distributors for working with us to ensure films were made available for members to watch on BAFTA View. Following the 2020 Review, we introduced over 120 wide-ranging changes across the organisation, including a new Film Awards Round One to allow longlisting.  The addition of this new round was to ensure that more films were seen during the initial voting process.  Before voting in the next round, which will deliver the nominations, members are asked to watch all films in the categories they vote in to ensure every film is given full and proper consideration.”

In addition to voting changes, the Review also announced an unprecedented expansion to further diversify BAFTA’s membership. New members are being invited and the target is to add 1,000 new members from under-represented groups over the next two years. A membership survey was sent out to members ahead of voting to enable us to set targets to address areas of under-representation. The results of the survey will be published soon.

The EE British Academy Film Awards will take place on Sunday 11 April. Further details regarding the ceremony will be revealed in due course.

The longlists can be accessed HERE.

Notes to editors:

For the 2021 Film Awards only, films which were intended for theatrical release may qualify for consideration should they release on an approved commercial VOD platform once the film meets all other eligibility requirements. 

The Eligibility period for the 2021 Awards began on 1 January 2020.

Due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, UK cinema closures and the limited availability of cinema screens, all entered films scheduled to release before the initial eligibility cut-off of April 2021, will automatically be eligible if they release (theatrically or VOD) within the 2021 calendar year without the need for an appeal.

Voting at a Glance

	Round 1 voting – longlists	Round 2 voting - nominations	Round 3–winners
Best Film​	All voters vote up to 15 ranked Top15 are longlisted	All voters vote for five ranked Five nominations	All voters
Outstanding British Film	Opt-in British Film chapter votes up to 20 ranked Top 20 are longlisted of which top five are nominated	Jury considers films placed six-20 and votes for five nominations 10 nominations	All voters
Outstanding Debut by a Writer, Director or Producer	Jury Top 12 are longlisted	Jury Five nominations	Jury​
Leading Actress Leading Actor Supporting Actress Supporting Actor	Acting chapter votes for up to top 15 ranked Top 12 are longlisted. Longlisting jury selects final three based on films placed 13-22 15 are longlisted	Jury for each category considers 15 longlisted, and votes for six nominations Six nominations	All voters​
Director	Directing chapter votes for up to top 20 ranked. Top eight female directors and top eight male directors are longlisted. Longlisting jury selects final two female and final two male directors based on next placed 10 films by each. 20 (10:10) are longlisted Jury considers 20 longlisted titles, and votes for six nominations	Six nominations	All voters
Original Score Cinematography Production Design Editing Sound Special Visual Effects Costume Design/ Make Up & Hair Adapted Screenplay/   Original Screenplay	Music chapter Cinematography chapter Production Design chapter Editing chapter Sound chapter Special Visual Effects chapter Costume Design and Make Up & Hair chapters Screenplay chapter Each chapter votes for up to top 15 ranked 15 are longlisted in each of these categories	Music chapter Cinematography chapter Production Design chapter Editing chapter Sound chapter Special Visual Effects chapter Costume Design and Make Up & Hair chapters Screenplay chapter Each chapter votes for top five ranked   Five nominations in each of these categories	All voters
Casting	Casting chapter votes for up to top 15 ranked 15 are longlisted	Jury considers longlist and selects five nominations Five nominations	All voters
Animated Film     Film Not in the English Language   Documentary	Opt-in Animation chapter Top 6 are longlisted     Opt-in FNIEL chapter   Opt-in Documentary chapter Each chapter votes for up to top 15 ranked Top 15 are longlisted	Opt-in Animation chapter Top 3 are nominated   Opt-in FNIEL chapter   Opt-in Documentary chapter Each chapter votes for top five ranked Top five are nominated	Opt-in chapter     Opt-in chapter     Opt-in chapter