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ONE OF the moments of a star-studded evening was the standing ovation the room gave June Givanni for her outstanding contribution to cinema.
For more than four decades, she has helped to maintain, enhance and preserve this country’s black filmmaking culture and also document diasporic black films that tell the wider cultural stories of black people from around the globe.
The curator, writer, programmer of African and African diaspora cinema founded The June Givanni PanAfrican African Archive – it compromises over 10,000 rare and unique artefacts documenting the development of filmmaking across Africa and the diaspora.
Her Bafta for Outstanding Contribution to Cinema was announced by Jane Millichip, the chief executive officer of Bafta last month.
Givanni has a wide history of international film and TV festival curating black cinema and has worked with many international film festivals on all five continents.
You can watch her give her acceptance speech below and listen to the citation presentation by actor Adjoa Andoh.
Jane Millichip, Bafta CEO, said: “The June Givanni PanAfrican Cinema Archive, developed over forty years, is now one of the world’s most important time capsules of the ideas, stories and creative output of an essential part of British and global film history, and a valuable resource for inspiring future generations.”
Actor Da’ Vine Joy Randolph won the Best Supporting Actress role for ‘The Holdovers’.
You can see her reaction below.
Bollywood star Deepika Padukone (pictured right) presented the Best Film Not in The English Language – she wore a Sabyasachi saree to the ceremony and posted it to her Instagram account. Indira Varma and James Martin and Himesh Patel along with Marisa Abela were also among those who presented awards.
Nick Mohammed who plays the character ‘Mr Swallow’ came on to provide some light entertainment relief and deliver some important housekeeping items – he also revealed he wasn’t South Asian – his mother is from Cyprus and his father is from the Caribbean – nevertheless he said he was there to ‘represent’ the South Asian community. Mohammed has also written Sky’s comedy drama ‘Intelligence’ (and appears alongside ‘Friends’ star David Schwimmer) and also features in the popular Apple TV comedy, ‘Ted Lasso’.
Here’s his skit at the Baftas 2024…
Actor-director Samantha Morton who was awarded a Bafta Fellowship Award gave an emotional and impassioned speech extolling the benefits of representation and supporting actors and other creatives who come from underrepresented backgrounds in the industry. She grew up in care.
Sara Putt gave her first speech as the new Bafta chair taking over from Krishnendu Majumdar, who stepped down following his customary three-year term that ended last summer. He had helped to lead a review into processes and outcomes following the scandal of #Baftassowhite in 2020 – it led to more 100 changes and the organisation appears to have benefited from them and having a diverse head who understood the issues and attempted to address them.
Writer-director Christopher Nolan’s ‘Oppenheimer‘ won the most awards of the evening – clinching seven, while Yorgos Lanthimos’ ‘Poor Things‘ won five, including Emma Stone’s Leading Actress; while Jonathan Glazer’s ‘The Zone of Interest‘ won three. www.asianculturevulture.com saw the film in Cannes, where it had its world premiere. The film ‘Earth Mama‘ won the Oustanding Debut and Mia McKenna-Bruce won the EE Rising Star award for her turn in ‘How to Have Sex‘ – which acv saw at London Film Festival last year. The Baftas were hosted on the Southbank Centre in London with the main ceremony taking place inside the main hall in the Royal Festival Hall on Sunday (February 18).
Acv would have covered the Baftas in real time with access to the media centre and the winners press conference but sadly couldn’t make it because of illness (SR).
