Actress Kate Beckinsale has rejected an apology from BAFTA. They could not guarantee that her late stepfather, Roy Battersby, would be included in their ‘In Memoriam’ segment this year. Battersby was a television director who worked on shows such as Cracker, A Touch of Frost, and Inspector Morse. He married Beckinsale’s mother Judy Loe and passed away at the age of 87 on January 10th.
On the day that this year’s BAFTA Film Award nominations were announced, Beckinsale took to Instagram to reveal that she had been informed by the organization that they could not assure her that her stepfather would be honored in the montage of those that have died in the past year. She wrote that “So a man dead less than a week somehow has to audition in front of a committee after a decades-long career (in which he has been awarded from said organization the highest accolade they have) to decide IF his death is worth mentioning.”
Now, the actress has followed up on her comments, thanking those that have reached out to her and redoubling her criticism of BAFTA. She stated that “You may be aware that BAFTA has said he will be included in their segment. I have not heard from them, they have not apologized to me publicly or personally and just asked that my publicist relay an apology.” She added that she had received far too many DMs from family members of people in the British film industry who have passed away who received similarly cold emails and were equally distressed by them.
Battersby won BAFTA’s Alan Clarke Award in 1996 for his services to television. Beckinsale is calling for a public and permanent assurance that BAFTA makes a major change to their policy of wording emails to anyone who has been bereaved, regardless of their work within the film industry. She wants assurance that this is the last time that BAFTA sends the family of any of its workers an email with such a dismissive and cold tone, whether or not the person in question is ultimately able to be included in the segment. Furthermore, the email needs to be doubly compassionate and celebratory of their contribution.
The BAFTA nominations were announced recently, with Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer picking up 13 nods, ahead of Barbie and Saltburn on five each
Read the full article on NME here: Read More