Bafta 2026 film awards longlists hope to avoid #BaftasSoWhite diversity criticism

Fri, 09 Jan 2026

With strong showings for Ryan Coogler’s Sinners and target hit for 50% female directors, criticism that has dogged the prizes in recent years may have been headed off

For now, the Bafta film awards appears to have headed off further criticism over its long-running diversity crisis after revealing its longlists on Friday.

Despite Bafta overhauling its awards voting system in 2020 after claims of “systemic racism”, outrage re-emerged in 2023 after no people of colour won awards. The longlists, which are an intermediate stage on the way to the final nominations with each category determined by different mixes of membership voting and jury selection, suggest that some progress is being made.