Prince William, Joaquin Phoenix blast BAFTA’s for lack of diversity

Prince William and Joker star Joaquin Phoenix were among those to blast the BAFTA’s for a lack of diversity at its annual film awards ceremony, where a Channel 4 and PBS feature doc was among the winners.

For Sama, produced by Waad Al-Kateab and Edward Watts, took the best documentary prize for its portrayal of life in the Syrian city of Aleppo during the country’s deadly conflict. The show was produced by Channel 4 News and ITN Productions.

Sam Mendes’ feature 1917 took home seven awards including best film and best director, but the lack of diversity among the nominees was the major talking point of the event.

Prince William, BAFTA’s president, said that it “simply cannot be right in this day and age” that the best actor and best actress shortlists were made up of all-white nominees, while there were also no women nominated for the best director category for the seventh year in a row.

Phoenix, who took the best actor prize for Joker, cited the “systemic racism” within the movie industry and said he took part of the blame for the lack of diversity.

“We send a very clear message to people of colour that you’re not welcome here. I don’t think anybody wants a handout or preferential treatment. People just want to be acknowledged and appreciated and respected for their work.

“I’m ashamed to say that I’m part of the problem, because I’ve not ensured that the sets I’ve worked on are inclusive,” he said in his acceptance speech.

“We have to do the hard work to truly understand systemic racism. It is the obligation of the people who have created and benefit from the system of oppression to be the ones to dismantle it. So that’s on us.”

In response to the criticism, BAFTA said it would be implementing a review of its voting system.

For the full list of nominations and winners (in bold), see below.

BEST FILM

• 1917 Pippa Harris, Callum McDougall, Sam Mendes, Jayne-Ann Tenggren
• THE IRISHMAN Robert De Niro, Jane Rosenthal, Martin Scorsese, Emma Tillinger Koskoff
• JOKER Bradley Cooper, Todd Phillips, Emma Tillinger Koskoff
• ONCE UPON A TIME… IN HOLLYWOOD David Heyman, Shannon McIntosh, Quentin Tarantino
• PARASITE Bong Joon Ho, Kwak Sin Ae

---

OUTSTANDING BRITISH FILM

• 1917 Sam Mendes, Pippa Harris, Callum McDougall, Jayne-Ann Tenggren, Krysty Wilson-Cairns
• BAIT Mark Jenkin, Kate Byers, Linn Waite
• FOR SAMA Waad al-Kateab, Edward Watts
• ROCKETMAN Dexter Fletcher, Adam Bohling, David Furnish, David Reid, Matthew Vaughn, Lee Hall
• SORRY WE MISSED YOU Ken Loach, Rebecca O’Brien, Paul Laverty
• THE TWO POPES Fernando Meirelles, Jonathan Eirich, Dan Lin, Tracey Seaward, Anthony McCarten

---

OUTSTANDING DEBUT BY A BRITISH WRITER, DIRECTOR OR PRODUCER

• BAIT Mark Jenkin (Writer/Director), Kate Byers, Linn Waite (Producers)
• FOR SAMA Waad al-Kateab (Director/Producer), Edward Watts (Director)
• MAIDEN Alex Holmes (Director)
• ONLY YOU Harry Wootliff (Writer/Director)
• RETABLO Álvaro Delgado-Aparicio (Writer/Director)

---

FILM NOT IN THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE

• THE FAREWELL Lulu Wang, Daniele Melia
• FOR SAMA Waad al-Kateab, Edward Watts
• PAIN AND GLORY Pedro Almodóvar, Agustín Almodóvar
• PARASITE Bong Joon Ho
• PORTRAIT OF A LADY ON FIRE Céline Sciamma, Bénédicte Couvreur

---

DOCUMENTARY

• AMERICAN FACTORY Steven Bognar, Julia Reichert
• APOLLO 11 Todd Douglas Miller
• DIEGO MARADONA Asif Kapadia, James Gay-Rees, Paul Martin
• FOR SAMA Waad al-Kateab, Edward Watts
• THE GREAT HACK Karim Amer, Jehane Noujaim

---

ANIMATED FILM

• FROZEN 2 Chris Buck, Jennifer Lee, Peter Del Vecho
• KLAUS Sergio Pablos, Jinko Gotoh
• A SHAUN THE SHEEP MOVIE: FARMAGEDDON Will Becher, Richard Phelan, Paul Kewley
• TOY STORY 4 Josh Cooley, Mark Nielsen

---

DIRECTOR

• 1917 Sam Mendes
• THE IRISHMAN Martin Scorsese
• JOKER Todd Phillips
• ONCE UPON A TIME… IN HOLLYWOOD Quentin Tarantino
• PARASITE Bong Joon Ho

---

ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY

• BOOKSMART Susanna Fogel, Emily Halpern, Sarah Haskins, Katie Silberman
• KNIVES OUT Rian Johnson
• MARRIAGE STORY Noah Baumbach
• ONCE UPON A TIME… IN HOLLYWOOD Quentin Tarantino
• PARASITE Han Jin Won, Bong Joon Ho

---

ADAPTED SCREENPLAY

• THE IRISHMAN Steven Zaillian
• JOJO RABBIT Taika Waititi
• JOKER Todd Phillips, Scott Silver
• LITTLE WOMEN Greta Gerwig
• THE TWO POPES Anthony McCarten

---

LEADING ACTRESS

• JESSIE BUCKLEY Wild Rose
• SCARLETT JOHANSSON Marriage Story
• SAOIRSE RONAN Little Women
• CHARLIZE THERON Bombshell
• RENÉE ZELLWEGER Judy

---

LEADING ACTOR

• LEONARDO DICAPRIO Once Upon a Time… In Hollywood
• ADAM DRIVER Marriage Story
• TARON EGERTON Rocketman
• JOAQUIN PHOENIX Joker
• JONATHAN PRYCE The Two Popes

---

SUPPORTING ACTRESS

• LAURA DERN Marriage Story
• SCARLETT JOHANSSON Jojo Rabbit
• FLORENCE PUGH Little Women
• MARGOT ROBBIE Bombshell
• MARGOT ROBBIE Once Upon a Time… in Hollywood

---

SUPPORTING ACTOR

• TOM HANKS A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood
• ANTHONY HOPKINS The Two Popes
• AL PACINO The Irishman
• JOE PESCI The Irishman
• BRAD PITT Once Upon a Time… in Hollywood

---

ORIGINAL SCORE

• 1917 Thomas Newman
• JOJO RABBIT Michael Giacchino
• JOKER Hildur Guðnadóttir
• LITTLE WOMEN Alexandre Desplat
• STAR WARS: THE RISE OF SKYWALKER John Williams

---

CASTING

• JOKER Shayna Markowitz
• MARRIAGE STORY Douglas Aibel, Francine Maisler
• ONCE UPON A TIME… IN HOLLYWOOD Victoria Thomas
• THE PERSONAL HISTORY OF DAVID COPPERFIELD Sarah Crowe
• THE TWO POPES Javier Braier, Barbara Giordani, Nina Gold, Francesco Vedovati, Gabriel Villegas

---

CINEMATOGRAPHY

• 1917 Roger Deakins
• THE IRISHMAN Rodrigo Prieto
• JOKER Lawrence Sher
• LE MANS ’66 Phedon Papamichael
• THE LIGHTHOUSE Jarin Blaschke

---

EDITING

• THE IRISHMAN Thelma Schoonmaker
• JOJO RABBIT Tom Eagles
• JOKER Jeff Groth
• LE MANS ’66 Andrew Buckland, Michael McCusker
• ONCE UPON A TIME… IN HOLLYWOOD Fred Raskin

---

PRODUCTION DESIGN

• 1917 Dennis Gassner, Lee Sandales
• THE IRISHMAN Bob Shaw, Regina Graves
• JOJO RABBIT Ra Vincent, Nora Sopková
• JOKER Mark Friedberg, Kris Moran
• ONCE UPON A TIME… IN HOLLYWOOD Barbara Ling, Nancy Haigh

---

COSTUME DESIGN

• THE IRISHMAN Christopher Peterson, Sandy Powell
• JOJO RABBIT Mayes C. Rubeo
• JUDY Jany Temime
• LITTLE WOMEN Jacqueline Durran
• ONCE UPON A TIME… IN HOLLYWOOD Arianne Phillips

---

MAKE UP & HAIR

• 1917 Naomi Donne, Tristan Versluis
• BOMBSHELL Vivian Baker, Kazu Hiro, Anne Morgan
• JOKER Kay Georgiou, Nicki Ledermann
• JUDY Jeremy Woodhead
• ROCKETMAN Lizzie Yianni Georgiou, Barrie Gower, Tapio Salmi

---

SOUND

• 1917 Scott Millan, Oliver Tarney, Rachael Tate, Mark Taylor, Stuart Wilson
• JOKER Tod Maitland, Alan Robert Murray, Tom Ozanich, Dean Zupancic
• LE MANS ’66 David Giammarco, Paul Massey, Steven A. Morrow, Donald Sylvester
• ROCKETMAN Matthew Collinge, John Hayes, Mike Prestwood Smith, Danny Sheehan
• STAR WARS: THE RISE OF SKYWALKER David Acord, Andy Nelson, Christopher Scarabosio, Stuart Wilson, Matthew Wood

---

SPECIAL VISUAL EFFECTS

• 1917 Greg Butler, Guillaume Rocheron, Dominic Tuohy
• AVENGERS: ENDGAME Matt Aitken, Dan Deleeuw, Russell Earl, Dan Sudick
• THE IRISHMAN Leandro Estebecorena, Stephane Grabli, Pablo Helman
• THE LION KING Andrew R. Jones, Robert Legato, Elliot Newman, Adam Valdez
• STAR WARS: THE RISE OF SKYWALKER Roger Guyett, Paul Kavanagh, Neal Scanlan, Dominic Tuohy

---

BRITISH SHORT ANIMATION

• GRANDAD WAS A ROMANTIC Maryam Mohajer
• IN HER BOOTS Kathrin Steinbacher
• THE MAGIC BOAT Naaman Azhari, Lilia Laurel

---

BRITISH SHORT FILM

• AZAAR Myriam Raja, Nathanael Baring
• GOLDFISH Hector Dockrill, Harri Kamalanathan, Benedict Turnbull, Laura Dockrill
• KAMALI Sasha Rainbow, Rosalind Croad
• LEARNING TO SKATEBOARD IN A WARZONE (IF YOU’RE A GIRL) Carol Dysinger, Elena Andreicheva
• THE TRAP Lena Headey, Anthony Fitzgerald

---

EE RISING STAR AWARD

• AWKWAFINA
• KAITLYN DEVER
• KELVIN HARRISON JR.
• JACK LOWDEN
• MICHEAL WARD