The British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) is going without the red carpet ceremony this year and moving to a broadcast only event. BAFTA said that the change was born from concerns surrounding the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic to protect both guests to the show and those who would have been working at the event that night. Plus, with strict travel bans in many countries, lots of those invited to the event wouldn’t be able to attend regardless.
BAFTA released a statement explaining the reason they have decided to change the format of the awards show:
“Amid growing concerns over the spread of coronavirus (COVID-19) and the number of nominees due to travel from overseas, we have made the decision to change the format of next month’s BAFTA Games Awards from a red carpet ceremony at the Queen Elizabeth Hall in London to an online live stream, which will broadcast globally on the same day as scheduled (Thursday 2 April).
The health and wellbeing of our guests and our staff remain our top priority, so there will be no live audience and we are now in the process of informing all our nominees, guests, partners and suppliers of the change. The new format will include the announcement of the Games Awards winners and we look forward to sharing more updates in the coming weeks.”
The BAFTAs will not be the first award show this year to make changes to their event in light of the concerns surrounding COVID-19. With E3 2020 being officially cancelled, most publishers planning to make an appearance at that event have committed to going digital for their 2020 announcements.
This year’s BAFTA awards can be watched on most social media outlets and even some consoles. The links to all of the places the BAFTAs will be screening can be found on their official website here.
About the Author
Bree Maybe
she/they
Bree somehow managed to weasel her way into a game design degree, hasn't stopped playing Skyrim since it first came out and never shuts up about Nagito Komaeda.
