Kate Middleton and Prince William stunned everyone with their arrival at the 73rd British Academy Film and Television Arts Awards (BAFTA). In his opening speech, the Duke of Cambridge addressed the need of diversity in the film industry amidst the controversy that came with the award ceremony's nominations.
As the BAFTA president for the past ten years, the second in line to the throne urged everyone in the industry to inject greater diversity in the business. He also commended the "exceptional film-making" that completed this year's nominations, per Express.
Prince William said people are lucky to have incredible filmmakers, actors, producers, directors, and technicians, both men and women from all backgrounds and ethnicities, all over the world that enrich everyone's lives through films. However, in this year and age, diversity remains to be a big issue.
"Yet in 2020, and not for the first time in the last few years, we find ourselves talking again about the need to do more to ensure diversity in the sector and the awards process," Kate Middleton's husband explained. "That simply cannot be right in this day and age."
Prince William is confident that BAFTA chair Pippa Harris and CEO Amanda Berry continuously work tirelessly to make sure that creative talents in the industry are discovered and supported. He also ensured that BAFTA takes the issue of diversity very seriously. After this year's nominations, he revealed they "launched a full and thorough review of the entire awards process to build on their existing work and ensure that opportunities are available to everyone."
To recall, when the nominations came out last month, BAFTA suffered a huge backlash for not including non-white actors on its list. Also, it only nominated male directors. The nominating committee addressed the issue, calling it an "industry-wide" problem.
BAFTA director of awards Emma Baehr told The Hollywood Reporter they, too, like to see more diversity in the nominations. However, she believed more films are needed to be made and entered the awarding to give more people the chance to see it.
Although they like to see more diversity, Baehr reveled she doesn't want to take that away from those celebrating today. Actors of color who are omitted from the nominations are Cynthia Erivo for Harriet, Awkwafina for The Farewell, Lupita Nyong'o for Us, Antonio Banderas for Pain and Glory, Eddie Murphy for Dolemite Is My Name, Jennifer Lope for Hustlers, and Jamie Foxx for Just Mercy.
Meanwhile, Prince William closed the ceremony by presenting the BAFTA Fellowship award to Kathleen Kennedy. He also made a joke if he should be proud or alarmed over the numbers of the night's winners that played the roles as members of the royal family.
