BAFTA Tweaks Film Awards Rules, Expands Outstanding British Film Longlist and Updates AI Guidance
The British Academy has unveiled new changes to its film awards eligibility and voting rules going into the 2027 awards, which are small tweaks compared...
Key points
- The British Academy has unveiled new changes to its film awards eligibility and voting rules going into the 2027 awards, which are small tweaks compared to the substantial edits recently made by AMPAS for the Oscars.
- Among the major alterations is with the Outstanding British Film category, which now sees the longlist after the first round of voting expanded from 15 films to 20.
- “We just wanted to widen the pool for consideration and to get more members watching more British films and voting on them,” said BAFTA‘s executive director of awards and content Emma Baehr.
- “For us, it’s a celebration — it’s our flagship category.” Popular on Variety Another tweak comes in the performance categories, where members of BAFTA’s casting chapter will now be invited to vote alongside the acting chapter in the longlisting and nominations rounds.
What happened
The British Academy has unveiled new changes to its film awards eligibility and voting rules going into the 2027 awards, which are small tweaks compared to the substantial edits recently made by AMPAS for the Oscars. Among the major alterations is with the Outstanding British Film category, which now sees the longlist after the first round of voting expanded from 15 films to 20. “We just wanted to widen the pool for consideration and to get more members watching more British films and voting on them,” said BAFTA‘s executive director of awards and content Emma Baehr. “For us, it’s a celebration — it’s our flagship category.” Popular on Variety Another tweak comes in the performance categories, where members of BAFTA’s casting chapter will now be invited to vote alongside the acting chapter in the longlisting and nominations rounds. This is something it says will be monitored with the “expectation that this will become a requirement in future years.” Alongside the rule changes, the British Academy has also revealed the key dates for the upcoming film awards. The final round of voting opens Jan 26 with the BAFTA film awards ceremony being held Feb.
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