It’s that time of year again. The red carpets are getting ready to be rolled out, designers are getting A-listers’ looks ready, and voting bodies across the film industry are getting ready to decide the winners of all of the year’s top prizes. And the BAFTAs is the next exlcusive event marked on the film awards calendar.
As the film-loving public are sat reading through the nominee lists, thoroughly scrutinising them to try and determine who we should put our money on, the official judges will be making their own decisions. Of course, in the primary awards of the season, each voting body has different tastes, biases, and procedures. This is usually most evident in the difference between the BAFTA nominations and the Oscars. With both lists, this year has proven no different. One shut-out from the BAFTAs, whose failing you can’t help but speculate the reasons behind, is Pablo Larrain’s Spencer. It’s true that the film’s reception, and Stewart’s central performance, have split opinion. Furthermore, some commentators have said that it simply seems like Stewart’s awards push ran out of steam, and she is far from the only high-profile snub. Even so, this complete shut out defies how well the film has performed during the awards season so far.
Spencer is defined by fantasy as much as it is reality. It follows Princess Diana, played by the now Oscar-nominated Kristen Stewart, over the course of a Christmas spent at Sandringham. It’s emotionally brutal, refusing to hold back in showing Diana at her most broken, homing in on her mental health struggles and eating disorder. With this in mind, it feels immediately suspect that it was shut out by an awarding body whose President is the protagonist’s son. While Prince William’s involvement in the voting process is likely limited, the immediate assumption is that his headship over the BAFTAs likely played in the minds of the voters, especially given how vocal The Duke of Cambridge has been regarding his mother’s portrayal in the media.
That being said, when we look at the history of how well films about the royals have fared at the BAFTAs, it seems unusual for this to be the one that is snubbed. Even before Prince William’s appointment as President, every other President bar one has been a member of the royal family. In the past twenty years, two films focused on the current royal family have been major winners. In 2006, The Queen took home Best Film and Actress in a Leading Role for Helen Mirren as our current monarch, with a further eight nominations. The film focuses on the reactions of the royal family following Diana’s death, and in particular the tension between the chosen public responses of the family and the government. In 2011, The King’s Speech dominated the awards season, winning seven out of its fourteen possible BAFTA awards. This included Best Film, Outstanding British Film, Best Original Screenplay, and acting accolades for three of the cast. While this film is about a former monarch who is no longer alive, it is recent enough that it is still ground that needs care when treading on it.
Meanwhile, Peter Morgan’s acclaimed Netflix Original Series The Crown has received multiple nominations for each of its four seasons, both in the main BAFTAs and their sister Television Craft Awards. That being said, in the former, it has only secured a win for one of these 15 nominations, and that was Best Supporting Actress for Vanessa Kirby as Princess Margaret. The series has been controversial since its conception, having become beloved by audiences, whilst increasingly being berated by royal reporters. Its most recent series riled up the royal family, with Prince Charles and Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall, in particular being targeted following their negative depiction on the show. For their portrayal as Diana, Emma Corrin received global recognition, and scored multiple major awards in the States while failing to receive a nomination from BAFTA. It seems like both the film and television branches of the BAFTAs display hesitation when it comes to Diana’s portrayals on screen.
That being said, while both Corrin and Stewart’s performances have been celebrated as intimately and accurately capturing the late ‘People’s Princess,’ there is certainly a difference in how their respective works portray her character. The Crown focuses more so on her relationship with Charles. As such, it is easy for both players in this drama to come out seeming volatile. Spencer foregoes the relationship drama to instead bring out Diana’s inner turmoil. Stewart’s trademark restraint as an actress fits this angle perfectly, her subtle mannerisms bringing to the surface each intrusive thought Diana feels, while the bleak cinematography claustrophobically trapping her in her own paranoia. It is not all hopeless however, with moments of freedom and joy sweeping us along with Diana as she runs across the beach with her dresser, or plays games with the young princes without fear of the watching world.
In fact, Spencer’s greatest strength is its empathy for its eponymous lead. Diana is seen not as the media personality she was, but rather as a nuanced, complex human being. Of course, in being so personal and attempting to understand her mental state, the majority of the film is steeped in speculation rather than any concrete fact. Maybe it is this that contributed to its renunciation by BAFTA, especially when considered alongside the former culture minister’s pleas to have The Crown more clearly marked as fiction due to its own speculative nature. The UK’s biggest film awards body may, in this sense, feel a marked responsibility.
The majority of the British Academy won’t have known Diana personally. However, the fact that their President did, and did so uniquely and closely, means that there is likely an emotionally personal bias when voting on films such as this. Spencer is undoubtedly enamoured with Diana, but its choice to centre on her hurt may have ultimately hurt its chances at the BAFTAs. Combined with several other factors admittedly outside of either BAFTA or the film’s control, and you start to get a picture of why it hasn’t got a seat at the awards table.
Words by Rehana Nurmahi
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