BAFTA Keeps Its Awards Ahead of the Oscars

Awards, Events, Past Events

By Henry Chu | Variety

BAFTA continues to take its scheduling cue from the Oscars, announcing 2021 and 2022 award dates Wednesday that keep the British ceremony a step ahead of its American counterpart.

The British Academy said its 2021 awards would be handed out Feb. 14 and the 2022 awards on Feb. 13. In both cases, the BAFTAs ceremony will take place two weeks before Oscar night, to maintain the British honors’ status as a bellwether for the Academy Awards and to prevent the BAFTAs from feeling anticlimactic, as was often the case when they used to be given out after the Oscars, up until 2001.

Next year’s schedule is slightly anomalous in that the BAFTA ceremony, on Feb. 2, 2020, falls only one week before the Oscars. But that is likely due in part to the difficulty of holding the awards in late January, so soon after 2019 closes.

The U.S. Academy unveiled its 2021 and 2022 award dates on Tuesday. “Timing of the 2022 Olympics, the Super Bowl and national holidays will keep the 2021 and 2022 dates on the last Sunday in February,” the Academy said in a statement, adding that it would “continue to evaluate dates for future years.”

The power of the Oscars to affect entertainment calendars around the world, despite the telecast’s ratings slide over the years, remains strong. The shift in Oscar dates caused not only BAFTA to adjust its calendar but also the Berlin Film Festival, which pushed next year’s 70th anniversary edition to later in February in order not to clash with the Academy Awards.

The festival has not yet announced its dates for 2021 and 2022.

 

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