BAFTA told its members this afternoon that it has started what it described as a comprehensive review of Sunday’s Film Awards after a racial slur was used when Michael B Jordan and Delroy Lindo were on stage.
“We want to assure all our members that a comprehensive review is underway,” the awards body said in a letter, which you can read in full below. The note was first published by Variety.
The fallout from Sunday’s BAFTA awards has been major. During the ceremony, John Davidson, the subject of the movie I Swear, could be heard shouting various expletives throughout the ceremony due to his Tourette’s, and shouted the N-word when Sinners stars Michael B. Jordan and Delroy Lindo presented an award. He subsequently left the auditorium.
The BBC has been widely criticized for leaving up a version of the ceremony on iPlayer in which the racial slur was audible for 15 hours before it was taken down. The broadcaster did, however, edit a significant portion of Akinola Davies Jr.’s BAFTA speech, including a part where he says “free Palestine.”
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We analyzed how the BBC missed the slur and was so slow to respond. BAFTA published a statement about the incident. You can read that here, and so has Davidson, which you can read here. Davidson’s expletives have dominated what should have been a terrific night for Studiocanal’s I Swear, which pulled a surprise in the shape of Robert Aramayo winning best actor over the likes of Leonardo DiCaprio and Timothée Chalamet.
Davidson has campaigned for rights for people with Tourette’s syndrome for decades. The BBC met prior to the BAFTAs to discuss what might happen were he to swear during the broadcast. Lindo told Vanity Fair he wishes a representative for the awards body had reached out to him and Jordan after the word was shouted. Sinners production designer Hannah Beachler, meanwhile, criticized host Alan Cumming’s on-stage apology.
BAFTA Letter:
We would like to address the situation that arose during the EE BAFTA Film Awards on Sunday night, in which highly offensive language that carries incomparable trauma and pain for so many was heard. We issued a statement last night, and we want members to hear from us directly, too. Please find our public statement here.
We recognise this has impacted members in a multitude of ways – we want to acknowledge the harm this has caused, address what happened and apologise to all.
One of our guests, John Davidson MBE has Tourette Syndrome and has devoted his life to educating and campaigning for better understanding of the condition. John is an executive producer of one of the nominated films, I Swear. The film highlights that Tourette Syndrome is a neurological disability that causes involuntary verbal tics, that the individual has no control over. Such tics are in no way a reflection of an individual’s beliefs and are not intentional.
We take the duty of care to all our guests very seriously and prepared extensively in order for John to be able to be present in the room. We made those in attendance aware of the tics, announcing to the audience before the ceremony began, and throughout, that John was in the room and that they may hear involuntary strong and offensive language, noises or movements during the ceremony. We fully understand our intention to be inclusive in no way diminishes the impact of what happened.
Early in the ceremony loud and involuntary tics, including one in the form of a profoundly offensive term, were heard by many people in the room. Michael B. Jordan and Delroy Lindo were on stage at the time, and we have apologised unreservedly to them, and to all those impacted. We have also thanked Michael and Delroy for their incredible dignity and professionalism – and regret they were put in this position in the first place.
During the ceremony, John chose to leave the auditorium and watch the rest of the ceremony from a screen, and we have also thanked him for his dignity and consideration of others, on what should have been a night of celebration for him.
We are in contact with the studios involved and conversations are ongoing.
We want to assure all our members that a comprehensive review is underway. You may have also seen the BBC have issued their own apology for the broadcast.It was a very complex situation and we understand you will have many questions – please rest assured how seriously we are taking this. If you’d like to contact us, please email [email protected]. We take full responsibility for putting our guests and members of the academy in a very difficult situation and we will learn from this.
We will keep inclusion at the core of all we do, maintaining our belief in film and storytelling as a critical conduit for compassion and empathy – as firmly demonstrated by this year’s nominated and winning films.