WEST HOLLYWOOD — On Thursday, September 24, BAFTA, The British Academy of Film and Television Arts, announced more than 120 wide-ranging changes to its voting, membership and campaigning processes on its website.

The BAFTA published it independent and thorough review which was done over a period of  seven months.

The Review was a direct response to the criticisms about its all-white nominations that excluded women directors in all its 2020 Film Awards nominations.

BAFTA is implementing a series of steps to ensure a more representative and inclusive membership that represents the modern British society.

The Steering Group has identified this as necessary for the long-term success and relevance of BAFTA as a leading industry body as it continues to make change across the industry.

At least 1,000 new voting members will be added over the next two years. There will be a strong focus on recruiting from under-represented groups.

It has made sweeping changes and introduced a diversity of membership and Membership Survey to help address the underrepresented groups. In addition, many changes are made to the membership selections.

A conscious voter training is made mandatory for all voting members. Through the training voters can better navigate and recognize the wider societal influences that can impact the voting process.

The main idea is to increase viewership of all the films entered into the competition and to provide members with enough time to watch all the films in addition to three rounds of voting for all awards. Changes are seen in all categories including acting, directing and Outstanding British Film categories.

Lack of equal opportunities at the awards has been a problem because big budget films tend to overshadow the smaller and diverse films right from the beginning of the competition, thereby hurting the recognition of smaller and more diverse films. BAFTA aims to move past these disparities with the new changes.

The change will implement “BAFTA View” which took three years to develop. It is an inclusive platform that is affordable to all filmmakers and studios giving them opportunity to present their films online to the voting members.

“BAFTA View” will be introduced during the 2021 Awards season. All films up for the Film Awards in 2021 will be available on the BAFTA View.