Head of BAFTA: Film industry not diverse enough

Redmayne is up for an honour for the second year in a row for The Danish Girl, while heartthrob Leonardo DiCaprio will be hoping to continue his triumphant awards season tour for his role in The Revenant.

Lenny Abrahamson’s Room received two nominations, with Emma Donoghue up for Best Adapted Screenplay and Brie Larson competing with Ronan, Alicia Vikander, Cate Blanchett, and Dame Maggie Smith for Best Actress.

The 69th BAFTA Awards take place at The Royal Opera House in London this Sunday (14.02.16) and will be aired on BBC One from 9pm.

The pair face competition from Michael Fassbender in Steve Jobs, Matt Damon in The Martian and Bryan Cranston in Trumbo.

The films leading the nominations with a total of nine nods each are Bridge Of Spies and Carol.

The Big Short, The Revenant and Spotlight – three of the five best film nominees – had yet to be released in the United Kingdom at that point. Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu’s “The Revenant” has eight, while George Miller’s dystopian thrill ride “Mad Max: Fury Road” has seven. Demonstrators rallied under the hashtag #baftablackout, and distributed leaflets declaring the awards “male, pale and stale”.

Herbert, who said on a video released on Vimeo that the United Kingdom film and TV industry was “pale, male and stale”, approached BAFTA chief Amanda Berry to discuss the protest.

Eddie, who is nominated in the Best Actor category for his role in The Danish Girl, smiled for the cameras dressed in a dark suit, shirt and tie.

Berry told the Daily Telegraph newspaper that not enough movies are made with diverse talent so “the pool of people to draw award winners from isn’t diverse enough”.

She said the charity would be setting membership targets on diversity and indicated those who decided on nominations should be “qualified” and working in the film industry.

On Saturday, Redmayne and his pregnant wife Hannah Bagshawe wowed fans as they hit the red carpet alongside a host of Hollywood’s finest for the Baftas Lancome Nominees’ Party at London’s Kensington Palace.

I suppose we should just be glad that they didn’t nominate The Force Awakens, which was (mostly) shot here at least.

Pioneering black American actor Sidney Poitier is due to receive a lifetime achievement award at the BAFTAs.