It took all of ten minutes after arriving at a LA party earlier this week for a female partygoer to take me to one side and urgently whisper in my ear, writes Tom Bryant
It took all of ten minutes after arriving at a LA party earlier this week for a female partygoer to take me to one side, and urgently whisper in my ear. Sadly it wasn’t a glamorous Hollywood actress but an enraged member of the Academy, whose paths I’d crossed with previously, and whose votes are crucial come Oscars night.
“What the hell happened at BAFTA?” they asked me. “What the f*** were you lot thinking.”
I wrote last month how the reputation of the British film industry could be trashed by the BBC’s failure to edit out the N-word shouted at Sinners actors Delroy Lindo and Michael B Jordan. But even I didn’t quite expect the fall-out from the affair to be lingering in the warm California air quite as much as it is.
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In fact, even with Tinseltown in the grip of Oscars fever, it’s a subject matter not far from people’s lips. And that’s mainly because Sinners – the film whose stars were so wronged by BAFTA and the BBC – is very much the talk of the town.
There is a growing feeling that Jordan’s and Lindo’s dignified handling of the incident has seen the film gather momentum. Both of those men are up for awards, as well as Wunmi Mosaku, who has said how her own BAFTA win for Best Supporting Actress for the film was “tainted” by the row.
You could sense that something was afoot at last month’s NAACP Awards when Lindo and producer-writer-director Ryan Coogler drew a standing ovation.
“We appreciate all the support we’ve been shown in the aftermath of what happened last weekend…it’s a classic case of something that could have been very negative becoming very positive,” Lindo said to almost universal praise.
The same Academy member who accosted me is one of 10,000 film industry figures who have cast their vote for Sunday night’s awards.
They told me: “The fact all this kicked off before voting closed on March 5 is a huge factor…everyone is talking about how Sinners could cause a huge upset and pick up best film, and its stars could chalk up wins too.”
Before the incident, the momentum lay firmly with One Battle After Another, starring Leonardo di Caprio, who is also up for Best Actor.
“It would take an almighty swing to dislodge that film…but it’s not a done deal by any means, and the BAFTA debacle has been a huge factor,” they added.
Although BAFTA and the BBC both issued grovelling apologies to the actors, Lindo said at the time he wished “someone from BAFTA spoke to us afterward.”
Another member told me how the “shambolic” handling of the affair had “put into sharp perspective…what could go wrong.” They said: “The Oscars have royally messed up before with the Will Smith slap, and announcing the wrong winner….so the BAFTA thing was a gentle reminder for everyone to be alert.”
There is also a sense in town that the ceremony on Sunday night is set to be one of the most politically-charged in recent years. And that this, too, plays into Sinners’ hands.
The influential Los Angeles Times believes the “divisive political climate…fuelled by President Trump…has reached fever-pitch proportions.”
And that a win for Sinners would represent a victory against Trump and what it calls his administration’s “relentless campaign against Black people and other nonwhite cultures.”
By Sunday night we will find out….
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