The Indian Panorama

Tag: BAFTA

  • Adarsh Gourav loses Best Actor honour to Anthony Hopkins

    India’s Netflix film, The White Tiger, was nominated for two categories at the British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) film awards – best actor and best adapted screenplay. However, neither actor Adarsh Gourav, nor Ramin Bahrani won the awards held late Sunday. Sir Anthony Hopkins won the best actor’s award for The Father, while Christopher Hampton and Florian Zeller bagged the award for best adapted screenplay for the same film.

    The US road movie Nomadland won big, bagging four categories including best film, best actress and best director at the award night. The BAFTA ceremony was held virtually over two nights, with nominees joining in by video, due to the Covid-19 pandemic. Chinese director Chloe Zhao’s US recession drama Nomadland is about a community of van dwellers. Zhao welcomed stronger representation for women film-makers in comments to journalists afterwards, saying: “It’s about time, it’s great. I love doing what I do and if this means more people like me get to live their dreams, I’m very grateful”. Nomadland is one of the frontrunners for this month’s Oscar awards, with six nominations including for best picture, best director and best actress. Last month it won coveted Golden Globe awards for best drama film and best director.

    Welsh actor Sir Anthony Hopkins won the best actor Bafta for The Father about a man suffering from dementia, directed by France’s Florian Zeller. The 83-year-old didn’t appear during the ceremony but spoke to journalists afterwards, explaining that he had not expected to win and had been holidaying in Wales and painting in his hotel room. “This is wonderful, I mean, this is the first time in my life when I never expected to get this,” he said, calling his fourth Bafta a “fun bonus”.

  • Indian Origin Film Director Krishnendu Majumdar Named Chair of BAFTA

    Indian Origin Film Director Krishnendu Majumdar Named Chair of BAFTA

    LONDON (TIP): The British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) appointed Krishnendu Majumdar as its new Chair. In doing so, Majumdar becomes the first person of color to be appointed to the role in BAFTA’s 73-year history and the youngest chair in 35 years.

    Majumdar has been Deputy Chair for one year and his tenure as Chair will run for the next three years – the newly extended term for all future BAFTA chairs.

    Majumdar is an EMMY-winning and BAFTA-nominated television producer and director. He has been closely involved with BAFTA for 14 years, having been the Chair of the Learning and New Talent Committee (2006-2010), the Chair of the Television Committee (2015-2019) and a member of the Board of Trustees for nine years.

    Majumdar has actively supported BAFTA’s year-round program of learning and new talent initiatives, including BAFTA Breakthrough and BAFTA Elevate. Majumdar is also chairing BAFTA’s Awards Review, convened in response to the lack of diversity in this year’s Film Awards nominations. He has been a long-time supporter of greater diversity on and off screen throughout his career and has also been on the Board of Directors UK and the PACT Council.

    Krishnendu Majumdar said: “It is a tremendous honor to be elected Chair of BAFTA and I’m lucky to be following Pippa Harris’ outstanding tenure and I want to pay tribute to the resilient and dynamic leadership that Pippa has shown. This year has been a difficult and turbulent time for many in our industry, working with Pippa, BAFTA’s talented and committed staff and membership, I want BAFTA to be at the heart of rebuilding the industry post-Covid. It is vital to ensure that we support people of all backgrounds, races and genders. Diversity and inclusion are crucial for the lifeblood of BAFTA, and we will continue to be a leader for real change across our industry.

    Krishnendu Majumdar co-founded the independent production company Me + You Productions in 2012, alongside Richard Yee. Since then, Majumdar has produced the critically acclaimed Dominic Savage drama series I Am for Channel 4 and the International Emmy-winning comedy, Hoff The Record. He has executive produced two series of the comedy drama Sick Of It, as well as the documentary series The Moaning of Life. Majumdar was also a showrunner on the BAFTA-nominated global hit franchise, An Idiot Abroad.

    Before co-founding Me + You, Majumdar worked as a freelance producer and director. His previous credits include BAFTA-nominated polemical film Who You Callin’ A Nigger? for Channel 4 and the major political film Michael Howard: No More Mr Nasty for BBC Two.

    Majumdar entered the industry by being the first and only person ever to be trained on both the prestigious ITN News Trainee and BBC Production Trainee schemes working across both ITN and the BBC at the outset of his career.

    He was born in South Wales to Bengali parents who arrived in the UK from India in the 1960s. His father was a GP who worked for the NHS for over 40 years.