News

The BAFTA TV Awards winners have been announced, and it was a big night for Michaela Coel, whose BBC and HBO series I May Destroy You scooped two of the biggest prizes of the evening.

During a pre-recorded ceremony at London’s iconic Television Centre, Coel walked away with best leading actress for her performance as sexual assault survivor Arabella, while I May Destroy You also scooped best mini-series, beating Steve McQueen’s Small Axe.

It follows I May Destroy You’s strong showing last month at the BAFTA TV Craft Awards, which celebrates the work of those working behind the scenes. Coel scored a BAFTA mask for best drama writer and best director at the ceremony.

After winning leading actress on Sunday, Coel collected her award in-person and thanked intimacy coach Ita O’Brien. Coel said O’Brien’s presence meant she could make a series about “exploitation, loss of respect,...

Steve McQueen’s anthology series Small Axe and Michaela Coel’s I May Destroy You dominated the BAFTA TV Craft Awards on Monday.

Small Axe clinched five wins, the most on a night that celebrated behind-the-scenes craftspeople, but it was I May Destroy You that secured two of the biggest gongs for Coel: Director: Diction, and Writer: Drama. The BBC/HBO series was also victorious in the Editing: Fiction category.

Coel, who beat McQueen in the directing category alongside co-director Sam Miller, accepted her writing win. “I would like to thank every draft. There are hundreds of them, each living only briefly and sacrificing themselves so the version we watched that won this BAFTA could exist,” she said.

BBC/Amazon series Small Axe’s prizes included JoJo Williams for Make Up & Hair Design; Jacqueline Durran for Costume Design; Helen Scott for Production Design; Shabier Kirchner for Photography & Lighting: Fiction; and Gary Davy for Scripted Casting.

In today’s Global Bulletin, BAFTA prepares online sessions for several top 2021 TV nominees; Modern Films picks up global rights to “Lady Boss”; Mise En Scéne Company adds “Anchorage” to its Marché du Film slate; Abacus Media Rights will distribute “The Masked Dancer U.K.” abroad; Amazon launches miniTV in India and sets “Sherni” premiere date; Head Gear and Big Wave Productions make key hires in the U.K.; Kaiser Chiefs frontman Ricky Wilson gets animated in Sky Kids’ “Dodo”; Strawberry Blond opens offices in Glasgow; and MTV U.K. partners with The Open University on a digital series for promising alumni.

Awards

Jodie Comer, Steve McQueen, Hayley Squires and Waleed Zuaiter are a few of the stars headlining BAFTA’s The Television Sessions 2021, an annual event series — held online for the second year in a row — featuring BAFTA-nominated shows and talent. Taking place May 18 through June 4, the five panels...

Steve McQueen’s Amazon and BBC “Small Axe” anthology leads the nominations at the British Academy of Film and Television Arts’ (BAFTA) Television and Craft Awards with 15 nods.

Netflix’s “The Crown” has 10 nominations, while BBC and HBO’s “I May Destroy You” has eight. BBC and Hulu’s “Normal People” has seven nominations, and Netflix’s “Sex Education” has six.

The Television Awards ceremony takes place June 6 on BBC One, and the Craft Awards will be streamed on BAFTA’s social channels on May 24.

Virgin Media British Academy Television Awards: Nominations

Comedy Entertainment Programme

“Charlie Brooker’s Antiviral Wipe” Charlie Brooker, Annabel Jones, Ali Marlow – Broke & Bones, Endemol Shine Group/BBC Two

“Rob & Romesh Vs” Jack Shillaker, David Taylor, Murray Boland, Danielle Lux, Bill Righton – Cpl Productions/Sky One

“The Big Narstie Show” Obi Kevin Akudike, Nathan Brown, Rina Dayalji, Ben Wicks, Toby Baker – Expectation, Dice Productions Entertainment/Channel 4...

The nominees for the BAFTA TV Awards have been unveiled, and it was good news for Small Axe and The Crown.

Steve McQueen’s BBC and Amazon anthology drama dominated with 15 nominations in total across the main awards and the craft prizes, while The Crown was next in line with 10 nominations. There were good showings for BBC/HBO’s I May Destroy You, which is up for eight prizes, and BBC/Hulu series Normal People has seven nominations.

Small Axe’s 15 nominations include recognition for John Boyega and Letitia Wright in the Leading Actor/Actress categories (both are first-time TV nominees), while the drama will compete for Mini-Series alongside Normal People, I May Destroy You, and Channel 4’s Adult Material.

Other major Small Axe nominations included Micheal Ward and Malachi Kirby for Supporting Actor, while Shaun Parkes will compete with Boyega for Leading Actor. The series is also up for nine craft awards,...

In today’s Global Bulletin, U.K. film bodies respond to AMPAS’ new diversity requirements, ITV details its upcoming virtual TV festival, For Film’s Sake announces the 13 projects selected for its inaugural Attagirl lab, Mexico’s Pixelatl and Cartoon Network Latin America announce their third annual Girl Power winner, Switzerland’s Zurich Film Festival reveals its 2020 Hashtag sidebar, and full casting for Canadian comedy series “Lady Dicks” is confirmed.

Representation

The U.K.’s leading film bodies have weighed in on the Oscars’ recently announced diversity requirements. On Tuesday, following several years of a membership drive designed to increase diverse representation, the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) announced new eligibility standards requiring enhanced diversity in both above and below the line talent.

“We welcome AMPAS’s announcement of representation and inclusion standards inspired by our own BFI Diversity Standards,” said British Film Institute chief executive Ben Roberts.

Among new members are Maren Ade, Hugh Grant and Hayley Squires.

The British Academy of Film and Television Arts (Bafta) has revealed its 2018 intake of new members drawn from the film, TV and games industry.

Among the 386 new members are actors Hugh Grant, Willem Dafoe and Hayley Squires, directors Maren Ade (Toni Erdmann), Daniel Kokotajlo (Apostasy) and Michael Pearce (Beast), film execs Shana Eddy-Grouf (Studiocanal) and Katie Goodson-Thomas (Fox Searchlight), and La La Land producers Jordan Horowitz and Fred Berger.

Former UK and Ireland Screen Stars of Tomorrow in the new intake include producer Fodhla Cronin O’Reilly and actor Jessie Barden.

Hugh Grant, Jodie Whittaker and Letitia Wright are among 386 new BAFTA members. The 2018 intake span the film, games and TV industries across eleven countries. Scroll down for the full list of new members.

Among new members are BAFTA-winner Grant, Doctor Who star Whittaker, BAFTA-nominee Willem Dafoe, Black Panther star Letitia Wright, La La Land producers Jordan Horowitz and Fred Berger, Mad Max: Fury Road costume designer Jenny Beavan, Toni Erdmann director Maren Ade, and UK broadcasters Sandi Toksvig and Simon Mayo.

BAFTA comprises around 8,000 members worldwide. The UK org tweaked its membership requirements in 2016 in a bid to improve diversity of intake.

Amanda Berry, Chief Executive of BAFTA, said, “We’re delighted to welcome our new members to BAFTA. Our members represent the breadth of the ever-evolving film, games and television industries. They sit at the heart of everything BAFTA does, from mentoring emerging talent, voting in the Awards, sharing...

Juliet Stevenson receives Lifetime Achievement Award.

Women in Film & TV (UK), the membership organisation for women working in creative media in the UK, announced its 2018 awards today (Dec 7), with Phoebe Waller-Bridge, Rungano Nyoni and Juliet Stevenson among the winners.

Actress Stevenson received the Lifetime Achievement award, presented by her Truly, Madly, Deeply co-star Michael Maloney. Stevenson’s film work includes Emma, Bend It Like Beckham and Mona Lisa Smile.

Actress, writer and director Phoebe Waller-Bridge was awarded the writing award. Waller-Bridge is best known for creating and starring in sitcoms Crashing and Fleabag, as well as writing and producing BBC drama Killing Eve.

Truly, Madly, Deeply star Juliet Stevenson, Fleabag and Killing Eve creator Phoebe Waller-Bridge and The Good Place’s Jameela Jamil are among the winners of the Women in Film & Television (UK) Awards.

The trio are among a number of women to be lauded at the awards, which are hosted by Sandi Toksvig and taking place on Friday lunchtime in London.

Stevenson is set to be handed the Eon Productions Lifetime Achievement Award by her Truly, Madly, Deeply co-star Michael Maloney, while Waller-Bridge is being awarded the The Screen Skills Writing Award. The ITV Studios Achievement of the Year Award is being handed to Jamil – a former British TV presenter who has now found success in the U.S. on the NBC comedy and is an active campaigner challenging the assumptions society makes about body size.

The Pinewood Studios Best Performance Award is being given to Nicola Walker, star of BBC drama The Split,...

Phoebe Waller-Bridge has won the top writing award and Rungano Nyoni the newcomer accolade from influential British industry organization Women in Film & TV. Actress Juliet Stevenson, whose numerous film credits include “Truly, Madly, Deeply” and “Bend it Like Beckham,” will be honored with a lifetime achievement award at a ceremony Friday.

Waller-Bridge broke out with 2016’s “Fleabag” and this year’s cat-and-mouse drama “Killing Eve.” Nyoni is the director of “I Am Not a Witch,” a freshman feature-length film that is Britain’s submission for next year’s foreign-language Oscar.

Jameela Jamil won Wftv’s award for achievement of the year. The former presenter stars in U.S. sitcom “The Good Place” and has actively campaigned on body-image issues.

American-born documentary filmmaker and producer Norma Percy picked up the award for contribution to the medium for her work on factual projects including “Inside Obama’s White House.” The factual category was won by Deeyah Khan,...

Muslim filmmaker Deeyah Khan’s journey to meet Us neo-Nazis and attend America’s biggest far-right rally in recent years is among the nominees to scoop and International News and Current Affairs Emmy.

The International Academy of Television Arts & Sciences has revealed the eight nominees in the two categories, which will be awarded in New York on October 1 at Jazz at Lincoln Center. The International Emmy winners will be recognized alongside their American news and documentary peers.

Khan’s film White Right: Meeting the Enemy, produced by Fuuse Films for ITV, is nominated alongside Children of Maria da Penha, a news special about children of victims of domestic violence from Brazil’s Globo, Menschenschmuggler – Das Geschäft mit den Flüchtlingen, the story of human smugglers for Denmark’s Dr and Germany’s Zdf and refugee story Off the Grid – Silent Death on a Syrian Journey for Turkey’s Trt World in the Current Affairs category.

Netflix has picked up a pair of documentaries from Emmy Award-winning filmmaker Deeyah Khan that look at the world of the far-right in the U.S. and, separately, Islamic extremism in the U.K. and Europe. “White Right: Meeting the Enemy” and “Jihad: A Story of the Others” launched Monday on the streaming service in the U.K. and the U.S.

In “White Right: Meeting the Enemy,” filmmaker Khan, who is a Norwegian-British Muslim of Punjabi and Pashtun descent, sits face to face with U.S. far-right and alt-right activists and personalities, including U.S. neo-Nazi leader Jeff Schoep. Khan and her crew found themselves in the midst of the Charlottesville riots while making the documentary, which was first shown on ITV in the U.K. last December.

BAFTA-nominated “Jihad: A Story of the Others” also bowed on ITV in 2017 (with the title “Jihad: A British Story”). In the film,...

Netflix shows “The Crown” and “Black Mirror” each landed three nominations Wednesday for BAFTA Television Awards, as did BBC dramas “Line of Duty” and “Three Girls.”

Royal chronicle “The Crown” received nominations for best drama; for Claire Foy, who plays Queen Elizabeth II, as leading actress; and for Vanessa Kirby, who plays Princess Margaret, as best supporting actress. “Black Mirror,” the dark, dystopian anthology series, also bagged nominations in the leading actor, single drama, and supporting actor categories.

Police drama “Line of Duty’s” trio of nominations included one for drama series and one for lead actress Thandie Newton. “Three Girls,” about sexual abuse in a community in northern England, will compete for the best miniseries award.

The nominations were unveiled Wednesday morning at BAFTA’s Piccadilly headquarters in London, with Michelle Keegan and presenter and “Strictly Come Dancing Winner” Ore Oduba making the announcements.

BAFTA chairwoman Jane Lush told...

Netflix drama The Crown is once again set to duke it out to win at the BAFTA TV Awards after being nominated in three key categories alongside Charlie Brooker’s dystopian anthology series Black Mirror, Thandie Newton-fronted cop drama Line of Duty and domestic British series Three Girls.

The period series was shut out at last year’s event despite picking up five nominations and has once again been nominated in the best drama category, while Claire Foy will go up against Hollywood star Thandie Newton for best actress. Given Foy’s performance over the two seasons, and the recent controversy over her salary, she is the hot favorite to pick up a gong as she exits the Left Bank drama. Similarly, Vanessa Kirby, who is handing over the reins of Princess Margaret to Helena Bonham Carter for seasons three and four of The Crown, is nominated for supporting...