Bafta introduces children’s and family film award for 2025, reduces jury interventions

Bafta has unveiled its most significant suite of rulebook changes since its 2021awards voting overhaul, with key alterations including the paring back of jury interventions, the introduction of a children’s and family film award, and eligibility for the outstanding British film category being tightened up through a new points system.

“We did the review four years ago, there were 124 interventions,” said Emma Baehr, Bafta’s executive director of awards and content. ”We’ve looked at four years of data, across membership, voting and engagement, and that’s allowed us to think about how the long-term measures in place are working well.

“We phased out the DVDs, [added] the randomised viewing groups, we’ve got [Bafta voters’ viewing platform] Bafta View, and we’ve widened our membership. Some of the shorter-term measures that were put in, real belt-and-braces [interventions], we feel we can phase out now that these other interventions are working. One of them would be the nominating juries, which was a short-term measure – we wanted to make sure everyone was considering and watching all films on the longlist. And now we’ve got this data, we see Bafta View is really working, people are watching more films than ever.”

In the directing category, the longlist intervention of the women/men director balance is being retained but both the longlist jury and the nominating jury is now removed, which Baehr said came as a result of consultations with organisations representing directors and individual filmmakers. The longlist will be to a maximum of 11, in line with other categories and reduced from 16, with nominations remaining at six.

The directing chapter will vote for up to their top 10 ranked, of which the top women and men directors, directors who identify as non-binary and mixed-gender directing teams (within the voting results range of the top 10 women and men directors) will be longlisted to a maximum of 11, with gender parity upheld between women and men directors.

In round two, the directing chapter will vote for up to their top six ranked. There is no change to round three voting, with the winner selected by all voters. 

The performance categories will be voted for through a combination of jury, chapter and all film member voting. From 2025, the longlists will continue to be determined by the acting chapter and longlisting jury (who decide three out of 10 places per category). However, all 24 nominations (six per category) will now be determined by Bafta’s acting chapter. Previously, three out of six nominees per category were determined by nominating juries. The winners will continue to be decided by an all-film member vote.

In both the director and performance categories, votes cast in round one no longer lead to any automatic nominations.

A new children’s and family film award aims to celebrate films appealing to inter-generational audiences. This is the first new category to be introduced to the Bafta Film Awards in five years, following the introduction of a casting award in 2020. This will be a jury-only category through the three voting rounds. Similar to the animated film category, the number of films longlisted will be between five and eight, and nominations will be between three and five at the discretion of the film committee and dependent on the number of entries.

The award was previously presented as part of the Bafta children’s awards, with plans announced last autumn to integrate children’s content in a more considered and dynamic way into the film and TV awards. Bafta deems the award as open to: “Films of any genre with a specific inter-generational appeal to children, young people and adults. Theatrically released live-action, animated or documentary films may fall into multiple genres including (but not limited to) action, adventure, comedy, drama, and fantasy. Films with a certificate of U, PG or 12A may be considered.”

“The film awards is our highest profile awards show, and this category will give the children’s film sector global recognition, which it wasn’t possible to do when it was run as a dedicated award ceremony,” explained Deirdre Hopkins, head of film. Children’s categories within Bafta’s TV awards will be announced later this year.

Eligibility for the outstanding British film category has been considerably tightened up. Previously, the definition of what counts as a British film was determined more loosely as “significant creative involvement”. Last year, the US-UK-Poland co-production The Zone Of Interest won in this category. A new points-based system aims to provide clearer guidance on how films qualify.

“We wanted to introduce a new points system so that it’s transparent how films are qualifying as British. We’re also aware of the new Independent Film Tax Credit, so we wanted to be sure that we were properly aligned with how the sector is developing over the coming years,” said Hopkins.

The new points system will encompass criteria such as nationality of the candidates for nomination, key department heads and cast, alongside collating information about co-productions, the BFI cultural test, setting, source material, and the new Independent Film Tax Credit (IFTC).

An update to the voting process has also been introduced. All Bafta film voters will determine the outstanding British film longlist, aligning with best film, the only other category that all Bafta voters participate in during round one. Previously, an opt-in chapter determined the longlist. As before, of the 15 longlisted films, the top five will continue to be automatically nominated, and a jury will continue to determine the remaining five nominations (bringing the total number of nominations to 10), while all film voters will continue to select the winner.

Opt-in overhaul

In documentary, the definition has been slightly updated from the 2024 rulebook, to spell out that films must be “intended for theatrical release”. Voters will also be asked to opt-in to the documentary chapter afresh. The partial use of a jury will continue at nomination stage (determining three out of five places), and all voters will select the winner in round three, not the opt-in chapter as in previous years.

As well in documentary and oustanding British film, opt-in chapters have been dissolved in animated film and film not in the English language. Members will be invited to opt-in again for animated, documentary, film not in the English language and shorts. These newly formed opt-in chapters will vote for the longlists and nominations in the animated film and film not in the English language categories, and the longlist for documentary, while the documentary jury intervention in round two will continue.

Bafta will be looking for a more specialist pool of voters for the opt-in chapters in round one, although the chapters will still be self-selective. There will be no limit to the number of opt-in chapters voters can be a part of. “We will be asking our members to consider the volume of films they’ll need to watch, and we’ll have a stronger criteria of if they have experience of, or work in, or an interest in a particular area,” said Hopkins. A list of films will be issued in October, so that members can see the titles and numbers of films submitted in each category, to inform their decision about which to opt-in to. 

At the final round of voting, the full voting membership will now select the winner in these previously opt-in categories. 

In the screenplay category, candidates for nomination are now extended to include those writers with ‘story by’ credits. There are no maximum number of credits that can be nominated from a single film.

In 2021, the debut category eligibility was changed to allow films to qualify as a debut if the director had previously made a feature that had not been distributed in the UK, even if it had been distributed internationally or played at a festival. The rule was put in place for three years, and has now been reversed.

As previously announced, the minimum number of theatrical screenings a film must have to qualify for the best film category has been significantly increased. Films must be theatrically exhibited publicly for the first time on at least 50 commercial screens in the UK for at least seven days – the equivalent of at least 350 screenings. Previously, Bafta mandated 10 screenings per day for seven days to be eligible. Films must be released theatrically in the UK from January 1, 2024 to February 14, 2025, except for those eligible for documentary and film not in the English language, which can be released up to and including March 21, 2025.

Last year, Bafta issued more detailed guidance with regards to regulations on campaigning, hosting screenings and communicating with voters, all laid out in a handbook. The main update this year means For Your Consideration (FYC) emails from campaigners for virtual screenings will no longer be permitted once the film is available on Bafta View. The rule of one mail, per title, per list, per week will continue.

Additional reporting by Charles Gant

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