BAFTA has confirmed the dates for next year’s initial film longlist and nominations announcements, as well as the earlier date of 2023’s awards ceremony.
Next year’s ceremony will be moved back to the beginning of the year, on February 19, 2023, following a stint in April due to the pandemic. The longlist will accordingly be announced on January 6, followed by nominations on January 19.
As a result of the earlier dates, fewer films will be longlisted in several categories to ensure people have time to watch them. The longlists for Best Film and all craft categories will come down from 15 to 10 titles, Outstanding British Film is now 15 instead of 20, and the director category is reduced from 20 to 16, which will be weighted to ensure eight female and eight male-directed features. The longlists for Outstanding Debut (10), British Short Film (10) and British Short Animation (six) will remain unchanged.
BAFTA has also made some rule changes for this year’s nominations, perhaps most notably that from 2023 the Producers Guild of America will decide the eligible producers in the Animated Film, Documentary and Film not in the English language categories. Producers eligible for nomination in the Best Film and Outstanding British Film categories are already determined by the PGA. In these three new PGA-overseen categories, if the PGA has not determined the eligible producers, the maximum number of eligible producers will remain at one (along with the director), without appeal.
