Adam Deacon (2012)

Since 2012, the Kidulthood star and Anuvahood director had several days in court. Deacon was sectioned due to mental health troubles and received a restraining order from the now-disgraced Noel Clarke. But after beating his demons he began working again. His Righteous Villains part won him a Vegas Movie Award, he appeared in the Megan Fox film Rogue and is directing his second film Sumotherhood.

Juno Temple (2013)

Juno Temple has maintained a steady workload post-2013. Ranging from the odd Maleficent series to the experimental Unsane, and earning a lot of awards attention for her part in the beloved Ted Lasso. Temple’s work may seem small scale but no matter where she appears she’s always a highlight.

Will Poulter (2014)

His versatility was already known when he accepted his award. But since winning, Poulter was in the successful Maze Runner series, critical darlings Detroit and The Revenant, and highly considered genre projects Black Mirror: Bandersnatch and Midsommar. Finally, with Poulter joining the Guardians of the Galaxy franchise as Adam Warlock his star will only continue climbing.

Jack O’Connell (2015)

After his stellar 2013-2014 output Jack O’Connell’s release schedule paused. But he returned in 2016s Money Monster and he scored another performance award for the affecting short film Home. Additionally, he led the acclaimed western series Godless. And he has been cast in Laure de Clermont-Tonnerre’s upcoming Lady Chatterley’s Lover adaptation. O’Connell has come a long way since Skins.

John Boyega (2016)

Outside of Star Wars, John Boyega’s moves were sometimes unsuccessful (Pacific Rim: Uprising) but Detroit earned him praise, and Small Axe: Red, White, and Blue won him a Golden Globe. His return as Moses in Attack the Block 2, and his part in Gina Prince-Bythewood’s forthcoming The Woman King looks set to continue showcasing Boyega’s unique voice.

Tom Holland (2017)

Tom Holland’s Spider-Man was a sensation. After accepting his BAFTA Holland headlined his own Spider-Man trilogy and had supporting roles in the final Avengers movies. Aside from the MCU Holland starred in the well-regarded Devil All The Time and Onward but Dolittle and Uncharted had poorer reception. With a huge profile and his recent interesting project choices, what will Holland’s future hold?

Daniel Kaluuya (2018)

Get Out and Black Panther (which opened just before the 2018 BAFTAs), showed Daniel Kaluuya’s talent to the world. But magnificent appearances in Widows, Queen and Slim, and Judas and the Black Messiah (which won him an Oscar) cemented him as one of this generation’s best actors. We will soon see him in Black Panther: Wakanda Forever and Jordan Peele’s Nope.

Letitia Wright (2019)

Claiming her award after universally praised roles like the MCU’s Shuri and Nish in Black Mirror: Black Museum Letitia Wright gained further awards attention for Small Axe: Mangrove. She lent her voice to Sing 2 and joined Kenneth Branagh’s star-studded Death on the Nile adaptation. Currently, she is rumoured to become the lead in Black Panther: Wakanda Forever. However recent controversy has many questioning this.

Micheal Ward (2020)

Michael Ward secured BAFTA recognition for Top Boy‘s 2019 series and the controversial Blue Story. Since then, he received more awards nominations for his part in Small Axe: Lovers Rock. And with a starring role in Sam Mendes’ Empire of Light alongside Olivia Colman and Colin Firth coming up he may soon be a big name.

Bukky Bakray (2021)

From her explosive debut in Rocks, Bukky Bakray went on to star in the series You Don’t Know Me. For which she again received praise. She has several projects currently in production. Including the drama Self-Charm and the class-conscious thriller The Strays. After making a huge impact so quickly, Bukky is a talent to watch.

This concludes our look at the last ten years of BAFTA Rising Star winners. Who is your favourite BAFTA rising star and who do you want to see nominated in the future?

Also Read: BAFTA: Steering Towards Greater Inclusion

Your contribution to Big Picture Film Club will allow us to continue to produce content. No matter the amount your contributions are greatly appreciated.

The post BAFTA’s Rising Star Award: Where Are The Winners? appeared first on Big Picture Film Club.

Today we’ll investigate the various arguments surrounding gendered awards. Primarily at the Oscars. And ask if we should change them into something else? But let’s begin by briefly looking at the history of gender within film awards.

Here Come the Actresses

The Academy Awards introduced the Best Actress and Actor categories at their first ceremony in 1929. The category’s intent was to give male and female stars equal attention and reward them for their body of work over a certain period. Later the Academy began rewarding players for specific roles. Then in 1937, the Academy launched the Best Supporting Actress and Actor categories to honour great performances given by smaller players. These remain the sole gendered awards at the Oscars.

Battle of the Genders

The most common criticism against the gendered acting categories is that acting doesn’t “inherently” favour any gender. Thus it would be much fairer for everyone to compete against each other rather than keep them segregated. Another objection is that acting remains the only gender split category. There should, however, be no reason to split up acting awards by gender when every other award considers men and women “equally”. Finally, despite trying to provide equal recognition the gendered awards have given little representation to people from marginalised groups.

The point about gendered awards lacking when it comes to diversity holds merit. The judgement of performance based on certain gender signifiers limits trans, non-binary and gender-fluid artists. And actors of colour and actors with disabilities are less likely to be included, regardless of their gender – which needs addressing.

Conversely, some points feel less reasonable. For example, although acting isn’t something that any gender is better at, Hollywood is biased towards cisgender men. They generally receive more roles and money than anyone else. Which gives them greater job opportunities and thus more of an advantage over their counterparts. Especially if the men are white and non-disabled. Additionally, while combining categories seems logical, several major gender-neutral categories show poor results for non-male representation. The only gender-neutral Oscar category to always feature female nominees is Best Costume Design. Meanwhile across 93 ceremonies, only 2 women have won the Best Director award. 1 female cinematographer has received a nomination for best cinematography. And women have won 20 screenplay awards, with men sharing 10 of them. The industry heavily favours cis men. Which makes it harder to defend dissolving the few categories that exclusively reward female workers.

Are We There Yet?

There is certainly a feeling that awards like the Oscars need to change. Other awards bodies, like the Emmys, have recently made moves to include more non-binary performers. Allowing them to enter using the title performer instead of the binary actor or actress. This move marks a huge step forward for inclusivity in the industry.

And there are potential solutions to the previously mentioned issues. Such as including more gendered categories e.g. a Best Female Director category to force Hollywood to show more encouragement to female workers. Categories can also have a greater number of nominees to allow opportunities for more workers to be included. And the push for visibility and recognition of workers of colour, non-binary, trans, gender-fluid and disabled workers must continue.

Conclusion

Many believe the current awards system demonstrates that other genders can’t compete with cis men. It can also alienate those who don’t conform to gender binaries and currently provides little representation to marginalised groups. However, gender “neutral” awards overwhelmingly rewards cisgender men (often white and non-disabled) to the detriment of others. Which doesn’t exactly provide encouragement for wholly scrapping gendered awards.

Solutions are available. Ranging from more nominations to more gendered categories to continuing to push for more diversity. But whatever the industry does it must strive for more inclusion and equality before it can claim that the playing field is equal.

Also Read: Oscars-Winning Directors Who Deserved Their Award For A Different Film

Your contribution to Big Picture Film Club will allow us to continue to produce content. No matter the amount your contributions are greatly appreciated.

The post Should Film Award Categories For Acting Still Be Gendered? appeared first on Big Picture Film Club.

The Undisputed Champion of Film Awards

I think most people in America and the UK see the Oscars as the film awards. Winning Best Picture at the Oscars is probably the closest we have to declaring what was the best film of that year. After all, there are many film awards that are specific to the host country; indeed, in South Korea, they have the Blue Dragon and Grand Bell awards, both specifically for South Korean films. But I don’t think that’s how the Oscars present themselves. For a start, films from all over the world can, and do, win awards; they are not limited to American or English-language films. There is an unspoken rule that every film – or at least every film that had a release in LA – is in contention. Last year’s Best Picture winner, Green Book, not only beat every American film but every Dutch, South Korean, Mexican and every other country’s film as well.

Awards Around The World

It does seem that a lot of countries have film awards that are specific to their country, and the Oscars (and the BAFTAs in the UK) are somewhat an exception in ostensibly being worldwide. But I’d argue that for many countries, it’s not their national awards but their film festival that is the big deal. France’s, and perhaps the world’s, most famous film festival is the Cannes Film Festival, with its biggest award being the Palme d’Or. Just glancing over the winners of this award since 2000, nine of the winners had some French involvement; if we eliminate co-productions, that goes down to two French films. Using the same criteria, The Golden Bear from the Berlin International Film Festival only has two films where Germany was involved in co-production. Without prior knowledge of the geography of Italy, I don’t think someone could work out any bias in the Venice Film Festival to its host country, since 2000 Iranian, South Korean and Venezuelan films have won the Golden Lion, with only one Italian film winning that award in that time.

10 Billion Reasons Why

So why do films from outside America fare so poorly at the Oscars? Well, most Oscar voters are US-based, so perhaps there is a bias there. But also, the American film industry is huge, making over $10 billion in 2017, and it would make sense that the biggest and most successful country would dominate awards. Again, like no other country, American films are watched around the world. In Britain and America, to even consider watching a film, not in English, is considered a signifier of high-brow intellectual tastes, whereas to like American films in other countries is the norm. However, it can’t simply be that America makes more films; if nothing else, India actually produces more. Parasite is only the twelfth film that isn’t in English to be nominated for Best Picture – and the first to actually win – and I think it is impossible to argue that such a list represents the best films ever made.

Another very interesting point in all of this is that for all of Parasite’s success at the Oscars, it received no acting nominations. The same was true of Roma last year, a film not in English that did well at the Oscars, and Slumdog Millionaire, which won eight, including Best Picture, but featured a cast of non-white actors who, when compared to typical Oscar nominees, weren’t at all famous. To me, it seems bizarre that a film that was considered the best of the year would not contain a single-acting performance worthy of an Oscar nomination. Is this bias towards American actors (and admittedly British actors who seem to be at no disadvantage), or is it simply that Kang-ho Song and Sun-kyun Lee do not have the name recognition as Brad Pitt and Renee Zellweger? As a case in point, I could rattle off the stars of Once Upon A Time In Hollywood or The Irishman, but had to look on IMDb to find the names of Parasite’s stars.

I think it’s clear that the Oscars are not really a competition without bias, but despite this, a foreign film can still win big. And, of course, even being nominated for an Oscar will raise the profile of a film that lacks the marketing power of something like Joker. If pushed, I feel that most people would admit the bias towards America and would see that as perfectly natural.

The post Parasite Director Bong Joon-Ho Once Described The Oscars As “Very Local” Does He Have A Point? appeared first on Big Picture Film Club.