Introducing Endless Mode: A New Games & Anime Site from Paste
The fight for awards—at least in the U.S.—just got more competitive. BAFTA is launching a new ceremony, titled the BAFTA Honours, which will be held in Los Angeles this November, per Variety. Yes, BAFTA still stands for “British Academy of Film and Television Arts,” but the new awards are meant to “mark BAFTA’s continued mission to grow in the U.S.,” according to the trade.
Apart from their across the pond origin, the BAFTA Honours will differ from long-standing ceremonies like the Oscars and Emmys in a few key areas. First, the gold mask prize will only be given to three distinguished honorees. Second, one of those awards will recognize achievement in video games. “Over 20 years ago, we launched our Games Awards in London. So for decades, we’ve now been this trisector organization: having film, television and games as our major award ceremonies in the UK,” BAFTA North America executive director Courtney LaBarge Bell told Variety in a statement.
“We’ve also really been doing a lot of work to help our membership reflect that trisector, as well,” she continued. “BAFTA North America has had chapters in New York and LA since the 80s and 90s—and so we have always been this place where, globally, people that are at that intersection between the US and the UK across film, TV and games have been existing. It’s really what sets us apart, certainly in the US, among other academies.”
While the gaming industry has been handing out honors at events like the Game Awards and others for years, BAFTA is still the only major guild to formally recognize the format alongside film and television. BAFTA North America recently expanded its footprint as well with the creation of the BAFTA Games North America Committee.
“For us, we’re thinking about the screen industries, and those are our three primary mediums,” LaBarge Bell shared. “So this event is really exciting because we are putting games on the same platform as film and television. As we think about the future of creativity and the coming years, we know films are going to become more interactive, games already are incredibly cinematic and moving. And at BAFTA, because we have this history of being trisector, we also want to be a place where those conversations happen. And so with BAFTA Honours, we’re really excited just to be showing the creativity and the craft among these three.”
This will be a tight race considering only three awards are being presented, and some worthy contenders will undoubtedly go home empty handed. Still, considering the recent explosion of video game adaptations across film and television, it also feels like this crossover couldn’t have come at a more appropriate time.
