BAFTA announces two-night awards show, reveals hosts and details

BAFTA announced today that this year’s EE BAFTA awards ceremony will be split over two nights, April 10 and 11, including an in-person component and both broadcast live on the BBC.

British radio and television presenter Clara Amfo will host the EE BAFTA Film Awards Opening Night, as it will be called, on Saturday April 10, and will air live on BBC Two. Amfo will be joined by panel of yet-be-announced guests from the Royal Albert Hall. A total of eight BAFTA winners will be revealed that evening alongside a presentation of the nominated films, including behind-the-scenes footage highlighting the creative process. The Outstanding British Contribution to Cinema award will be the only in-person awards moment of the night.

For night two, Amfo will interview BAFTA presenters live from the Royal Albert Hall, with Edith Bowman and Dermot O’Leary taking co-host duties the main BAFTA show, which will air on BBC One. The remaining 17 awards will be handed out here, including the public-voted Rising Star Award and the BAFTA fellowship.

“We’re thrilled that we have two programmes for the 2021 EE British Academy Film Awards for the very first time this year, in which we’ll showcase our nominees and reveal the winners. To help us celebrate the art and craft of filmmaking in more depth we’ll be joined by three hosts – Clara Amfo on Saturday and Dermot O’Leary and Edith Bowman on Sunday. I hope our audiences are just as excited as we are for the BAFTA weekend on the BBC.” said Emma Baehr, Executive Director of Awards & Content at BAFTA.

Marc Samuelson, Chair of the BAFTA Film Committee, added: “It has been an extremely tough year for everyone, including for cinemas and for the film industry, so we are looking forward to some fun, and a celebration of great talent across the weekend. The industry and film lovers are coming together to shine a spotlight on the creativity and craft behind the 50 nominated films, and to recognize and celebrate the efforts of the industry to keep going during this particularly challenging time.”

This year’s BAFTA nominating process went through an extensive overhaul, bringing the return of the longlists (voted on largely by chapter) and the nominees in the directing and acting categories selected by a small jury of 7-12 people. This was in response to recent years of all-white nominees and a lack of diversity both in the membership ranks and with the group’s yearly awards. Chloé Zhao’s Nomadland and Sarah Gavron’s Rocks lead this year’s BAFTA nominations where the two women are nominated in Best Director alongside Shannon Murphy for Babyteeth, Lee Isaac Chung for Minari, Jasmila Žbanić for Quo Vadis, Aida? and Thomas Vinterberg for Another Round.

Photo courtesy of Shutterstock