How Does BAFTA Choose Its Breakthroughs? A Glimpse Into Finding Tomorrow’s Top Talent
Florence Pugh, Josh O’Connor, Tom Holland: the BAFTA Breakthrough initiative has spotlighted more than a fair share of industry stars before they became the A-listers we know and love today.
The British arts charity’s flagship new-talent program, supported by Netflix, doesn’t just unearth promising performers: it champions behind-the-scenes film and television professionals — from various backgrounds — working as writers, designers, casting directors, composers and more, to support their professional development. It helps that the scheme’s supporters include the likes of Olivia Colman, Tilda Swinton and Brad Pitt.
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For over 10 years (before 2020, the program was known as Breakthrough Brits), the cohorts produced from the U.K. and U.S. have been immediately invited into a world of open doors. Today, they are up and coming, but tomorrow — are they the face of Disney+’s newest smash hit series?
You might now be a fan of Ambika Mod, star of Netflix‘s One Day, or perhaps Nic?le Lecky, writer and executive producer of award-winning Mood and the not-yet-released BBC show Wild Cherry. But you probably didn’t know they were both selected for BAFTA Breakthrough U.K. in 2022. Even Bella Ramsey, now famed for their role alongside Pedro Pascal in The Last of Us, made last year’s Breakthrough list. Mawaan Rizwan of BBC Three’s Juice and Baby Reindeer breakout Nava Mau are among the 2024 cohort, released on Thursday.
“For sure,” Breakthrough U.S. star (2021) and documentary filmmaker Bao Nguyen replies when asked by The Hollywood Reporter if making the list changed his career. “I’m the type of artist and filmmaker who doesn’t want to put my profile out there, necessarily. I let the work speak for itself.”
Nguyen, mastermind behind The Greatest Night in Pop (2024), continues: “And so when I would go to certain events… people would introduce me as a Breakthrough, and then everyone would be like, ‘Oh my God, that’s such a prestigious program.’ Once people realized I was a Breakthrough, there’s definitely a level of respect and prestige they gave me.”
Letitia Wright, Malachi Kirby, Jessie Buckley and Paapa Essiedu are just some of the actors bestowed with a place on the program. Others include reality television producer Coco Jackson, games creatives Segun Akinola, Dan Gray, Gemma Langford, and directors Rose Glass, Stella Corradi, Destiny Ekaragha and Michael Pearce.
Rye Lane star Vivian Oparah, Sex Education‘s George Robinson, production designer on Chernobyl Luke Hull, I May Destroy You‘s hair and makeup artist Bethany Swan — the list goes on. And, crucially, it’s diverse.
Ade Rawcliffe, chair of the Learning, Inclusion & Talent Committee at BAFTA, is also a board member and sat in on the executive group for Breakthrough U.K. this year. “If I look back at when I started in the industry, I very rarely saw people that looked like me on screen,” Rawcliffe tells THR. “And I didn’t see as many people that look like me behind the camera. The data shows we’re improving, but it shows we’ve got a long way to go. We’re very realistic that we still have more work to do, which is why initiatives like Breakthrough are so important.”
BAFTA Breakthrough collaborates with other organizations, too, to host networking events or masterclasses enabling the cohorts to get in and amongst important people. “It’s profile… It gives people confidence,” Rawcliffe continues. “You will have access to people who have done it before. They’ll help you with those things that are difficult. What BAFTA does is connect you to that. Being an Academy, [it means] people that have done things before are sharing their knowledge.”
The big question remains: How does BAFTA pick its Breakthroughs? Among thousands of applications, only just over 30 stand out enough to make the final U.K. and U.S. lists.
The Academy moved away from juries to sub-committees of seasoned industry assessors in the U.K., to give those in charge of finding the next cohort more time to evaluate applications. Applicants are asked about their contribution to their Breakthrough project (the defining piece of work that drives an application forward, such as a film, television show, or game), what they would like to achieve with the program, and what change they’d like to see in the industry.
“We really, really push it out as far and as wide as possible,” Rawcliffe explains. “We try and go to places where people haven’t necessarily come from before, so we can get the very best talent. We need people who have broken through, but we also want people who we feel will make the most of the opportunity. A lot of applications in these last couple of years [have stressed] the role people want to play in the industry as well, beyond their work; how they want to advocate for others, how they want to use their position.”
There’s a balance with BAFTA Breakthrough: familiar names we already know versus lesser-known industry talent. How is that balance struck? “We always look for a balance of people because when we talk about representing the population, we’re also trying to represent the industry,” Rawcliffe says. “There are people whose names you will know because they’re in front of the camera, but there’ll be other names who are not as well known because they’re in roles behind the camera — and still impacting the industry.”
“Breakthrough cements its alumni as the next generation of creatives both in front of and behind the camera,” adds Anne Mensah, vice president, U.K. content at Netflix. “Netflix has been lucky enough to collaborate with a few of those who have been through the program, but many more continue to make waves across the industry as the next exceptional storytellers of our time.”
What has become apparent in recent years is BAFTA truly is the U.K.’s biggest Academy, in numbers (with a global membership tally of 12,000+) and in fame, comparable to the States’ AMPAS or Television Academy. The BAFTA Film Awards in February, in particular, has gradually become a huge signifier for who and what will go on to triumph at the Oscars or SAG Awards, for example, such as with Cillian Murphy’s Oppenheimer win and Emma Stone’s best actress award for Poor Things, or Justine Triet’s best original screenplay sweep for Anatomy of a Fall, earlier this year.
Rawcliffe concurs. “It becomes ever more important to win a BAFTA and to be recognized by BAFTA, which is why it’s so important that all the other initiatives that underpin it really matter. We want to use the excellence and the power of awards to bring broader change in the industry.”
Nguyen says the benefits of his inclusion have weathered the storms of a rocky entertainment business in recent years: “Even though I finished the program a year or two ago, I continue to rely on BAFTA for their support. The alumni program is very strong, and I keep in touch with many [people] in my cohort.”
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