Awards for UK films and talent in 2019/20
BFI Research and Statistics Unit
26 March 2020
1. Key Points
In the 2019/20 award cycle, UK film and talent won 26 awards (13% of possible awards) across the five major film festivals in 2019 and Academy Awards® and BAFTA Film Awards in 2020.
UK film and talent won seven awards at the Sundance, Cannes, Vienna and Toronto film festivals.
UK film and talent won 13 awards at the BAFTA Film Awards in 2020, and six awards at the 2020 Academy Awards® across a range of award categories, including cinematography, costume design, and short subject documentary.
2. Awards for UK films and talent This release showcases the awards won by UK talent and films at the major film award ceremonies and film festivals in the 2019/20 awards cycle. The film award ceremonies included here are the Academy Awards® and BAFTA Film Awards held in 2020, and the major film festivals included are the Berlin, Cannes, Sundance, Toronto and Venice festivals held in 2019. Table 1 shows the total number of awards won collectively across festivals and the awards cycle for 2019/2020 and the calendar year 2019, in order to compare with previous years.
UK films and talent won 26 awards in the 2019/20 awards cycle (the five main film festivals in 2019 and the British Academy Film Awards and Academy Awards® in 2020). Discounting UK-specific awards such as the Outstanding British Film award from the British Academy Film Awards, this means that UK films and talent won 13% of all available awards for international talent. (Awards specific to foreign nationals or films, for example the Toronto International Film Festival’s award for Best Canadian Film, are also not included in the analysis). This is slightly up from 25 award winners (13%) in the 2018/19 award cycle.
Looking at the awards won in the 2019 calendar year, UK films and talent won 25 awards, representing 14% of the awards available. This number is down from 28 in 2018, but the UK industry accounts for a similar share (14%) owing to a slight fall in the number of awards available.
Table 1 Numbers of UK award winners, 2001-2019/20 Year Number of UK award winners UK share % 2001 25 14 2002 24 15 2003 22 13 2004 22 13 2005 23 14 2006 25 14 2007 32 15 2008 32 15 2009 36 17 2010 24 12 2011 30 15 2012 23 14 2013 24 13 2014 28 19 2015 24 16 2016 29 15 2017 22 12 2018 28 14 2019 25 14 Total (to end of 2019) 498 14 2017/18 awards cycle 33 18 2018/19 awards cycle 25 13 2019/20 awards cycle 26 13 Source: BFI
In the 2019/20 cycle a range of awards were given to UK film and talent, for work in front of and behind the camera as well as for overall contribution to cinema. Sam Mendes’ technically ambitious
war film 1917 led the pack in the number of accolades by sweeping the British Academy Film awards in seven categories and winning three American Academy awards. Two British documentaries won two awards apiece – For Sama at Cannes and at the British Academy Film Awards, and the short documentary Learning to Skateboard in a Warzone (If You’re a Girl) at the British Academy and American Academy awards.
In addition to prizes won by UK films, British talent won three awards for work on international films. Jacqueline Durran won both the British and American Academy awards for costume design in Little Women, and Mick Jagger with Giuseppe Capotondi and Donald Sutherland won an award at the Venice International Film Festival for The Burnt Orange Heresy. Julie Andrews was also awarded the Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement at Venice.
Table 2 Awards won by UK film and British talent, 2019/20 Award ceremony/festival Award Title Recipient Cannes Film Festival, 14- Best Actress Little Joe Emily Beecham 25 May 2019 Golden Eye For Sama Waad Al-Kateab, Documentary Prize Edward Watts Sundance Film Festival, Alfred P. Sloan Feature The Boy Who Chiwetel Ejiofor 24 January-3 February Film Prize Harnessed the 2019 Wind World Cinema Dramatic The Souvenir Joanna Hogg Competition, Grand Jury Prize Toronto International FIPRESCI Special How to Build a Coky Giedroyc Film Festival, 05-15 Presentations Girl September 2019 Venice International Film Fondazione Mimmo The Burnt Orange Giuseppe Capotondi, Festival, 28 August-07 Rotella Award Heresy Mick Jagger, Donald September 2019 Sutherland Golden Lion For - Julie Andrews with Lifetime Achievement Pedro Almodóvar British Academy Film Best Film 1917 Pippa Harris, Callum Awards, 2 February 2020 McDougall, Sam Mendes, Jayne-Ann Tenggren British Short Animation Grandad was a Maryam Mohajer Romantic British Short Film Learning to Carol Dysinger, Elena Skateboard in a Andreicheva Warzone (If You're a Girl) Cinematography 1917 Roger Deakins Costume Design Little Woman Jacqueline Durran Director 1917 Sam Mendes Documentary For Sama Waad Al-Kateab, Edward Watts EE Rising Star Award - Micheal Ward Outstanding British Film 1917 Pippa Harris, Callum McDougall, Sam Mendes, Jayne-Ann
Tenggren, Krysty Wilson-Cairns Outstanding Debut By A Bait Mark Jenkin British Writer, Director Or Producer Production Design 1917 Dennis Gassner, Lee Sandales Sound 1917 Oliver Tarney, Rachael Tate, Mark Taylor, Stuart Wilson, Scott Millan Special Visual Effects 1917 Dominic Tuohy, Greg Butler, Guillaume Rocheron Academy Awards, 09 Achievement in 1917 Roger Deakins February 2020 cinematography Achievement in Little Women Jacqueline Durran costume design Achievement in music Rocketman "(I'm Gonna) Love Me written for motion Again", Elton John, pictures (Original song) Bernie Taupin Achievement in sound 1917 Mark Taylor, Stuart mixing Wilson Achievement in visual 1917 Dominic Tuohy, Greg effects Butler, Guillaume Rocheron Best documentary short Learning to Carol Dysinger, Elena subject Skateboard in a Andreicheva Warzone (If You're a Girl)
Notes
1. Data
Data were obtained from the Academy Awards® and BAFTA websites, the websites of the individual named festivals and the Internet Movie Database (IMDb). British winners were identified from information acquired from a wide range of public sources.
2. Definitions:
A UK film is a film which is certified as such by the UK Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport under Schedule 1 of the Films Act 1985, via the Cultural Test, under one of the UK’s bilateral co- production agreements or the European Convention on Cinematographic Co-production; a film which has not applied for certification but which is obviously British on the basis of its content, producers, finance and talent; or (in the case of a re-release) a film which met the official definition of a British film prevailing at the time it was made or was generally considered to be British at that time.
British talent is an individual is considered to be British either by virtue of having been born in the UK or by having gained British Citizenship.
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4. Quality
This release has been prepared according to the Code of Practice for Official Statistics published by the UK Statistics Authority (2009). Pre-release access was granted to the following:
5. Statistical contact details
This release was prepared by John Sandow, Research and Statistics Unit, BFI, [email protected].