Joaquin Phoenix was 100% right in his Baftas speech, now industry heads need to follow it up with action

Creatives of colour have been shut out of this industry for as long as it has existed. Telling them to build their own door and force their way in just doesn’t cut it, it’s blame-shifting

As Joaquin Phoenix’s Baftas acceptance speech does the rounds, it appears we’re about to enter yet another period of “reflection”.

“How?!”, the mostly white industry insiders cry. “How can we make a difference? When will this madness STOP?”

I’m being facetious. But however well-meaning these expressions of “frustration” are, each year, again and again, the lack of awareness about why we’re stuck in this loop is astounding.

I’ve seen arguments from Bafta voters, many of whom do genuinely seem to want change, which suggest that the issue is rooted in the membership. There aren’t enough diverse voices, they need to apply, apply, apply.

Others have suggested that it’s a matter of age, that voters simply flock to exactly the sort of projects we’ve always rewarded in Britain — the war films, the more “traditional” stories and the actors with long histories of picking up such awards.

But if there really is a desire to change things for good, there needs to be a concerted effort to shake up the entire industry. Emma Baehr, director of the Baftas, almost hit the nail on the head when discussing the embarrassing all-white nominations for actors last month, calling it an “industry-wide” issue. But it’s deeper than that.

Asking more people of colour to apply to be voters, or that “more films need to be made and entered” clearly isn’t enough. And the criteria (five years’ experience in a senior creative, production/post-production or executive role) seem quite restrictive, given how few poc have access to such roles in the first place.

Creatives of colour have been shut out of this industry for as long as it has existed. Telling them to build their own door and force their way in isn’t a useful solution, it’s blame-shifting. This isn’t a matter of a lack of initiative from non-white members of the industry, but the other way around.

If the statistics reflect a systemic issue, so do how they are recorded. Last year, Ofcom noted that “broadcasters urgently need to undertake better, more regular monitoring of the make-up of their employees”, with the TV industry offering ethnicity data for only 81 per cent of its workers, and disability figures for just 69 per cent.

If even the prospect of recording such statistics is an issue in the first place, there needs to be something bolder in place. What that should look like, I’m not sure. Quotas, which the Baftas have already explored by requiring films in the “Outstanding British Film” and “Outstanding Debut by a British Writer, Director or Producer” categories to meet BFI diversity standards, could help.

But crucially, people at the top of the industry need to show they care for more than 24 hours after a white Hollywood darling (rightfully) tells them they should. After all, people of colour have been raising the issue for years.

As of last year, 6 per cent of senior roles at the BBC were made up of people from ethnic minority backgrounds, while ITV had an even lower proportion. According to a report by The Work Foundation, ethnic minorities have historically faced considerable barriers to both entering and progressing in the British film industry. Prospects are even worse when it comes to management and funding opportunities.

So, please, to the voters, Bafta heads and gatekeepers across this industry, do not punt the issue back to those who can do little about it. Do not tell us you wish things were better. Do not, for self-serving purposes, talk to us about being disappointed.

True disappointment would lead to meaningful change. While the Baftas have vowed to review the awards process, we’ve seen similar efforts in the past and I’m not confident those who can make a difference see this as anything more than a box-ticking exercise, rather than a chance to improve an increasingly bland and predictable roster of mainstream films.

We may see a complete shift come this time next year, we may not. But, as Sharmaine Lovegrove, a publisher at Dialogue Books and Little, Brown, pointed out on Twitter today: “I hope everyone working in the European and British creative industry sectors takes a few moments to watch [Phoenix’s speech] when they get to their office”, takes a look at the few people of colour there and “thinks about their demonstrative contribution to change for good”.