Film industry not diverse enough — Head of BAFTA

The five movies up for best film are The Big Short, Bridge Of Spies, The Revenant, Carol and Spotlight.

The BAFTA nominees bash is being held at London’s Kensington Palace ahead of tomorrow’s glittering ceremony.

The American awards has been targeted by campaigners, under the banner “Oscars So White”, and a British group representing black film industry figures is to stage a silent protest outside the Baftas, at the Royal Opera House, under the banner “Bafta Blackout”.

Amy Winehouse documentary Amy is also on the shortlist, as are marital drama 45 Years, sci-fi thriller Ex Machina – in which Vikander plays a humanoid robot – and surreal comedy drama The Lobster.

Alicia Vikander, Redmayne’s on-screen partner in The Danish Girl, is up for the leading actress award alongside Brie Larson for Room, Saoirse Ronan for Brooklyn, Cate Blanchett for Carol, and Maggie Smith for Lady In The Van.

Rooney Mara (left) and Cate Blanchett in Carol, for which Blanchett is nominated.

Hollywood’s finest are set to descend on London this weekend as Eddie Redmayne does battle with Leonardo DiCaprio for the Leading Actor gong at the British Academy Film Awards.

Bafta is to follow the lead of the Oscars – which faces a boycott over the lack of black nominees at this year’s event – by overhauling its members to make them more representative of society.

Idris Elba is the only black actor out of twenty performers to be given the nod in the four main acting categories at the BAFTAs.

The Baftas, which are seen as a good indicator of who will achieve Oscar success, will be handed out on Sunday. Past year all of the Bafta acting winners – Eddie Redmayne, Julianne Moore, JK Simmons and Patricia Arquette – went on to win the equivalent Oscars. The former has received a Bafta nod in the directing category for The Martian.

Berry told the Guardian that Bafta has long recognised that the industry isn’t diverse, and has been “working away in the background, probably too quietly”. However, Sir Sidney is unable to attend the ceremony in person due to health reasons.

The prestigious event, hosted by Stephen Fry, will be broadcast on BBC One at 9pm.

The actor looked dapper as he walked the red carpet at the star-studded bash arm-in-arm with his wife.