Forward of immediately’s BAFTA Games Awards, GamesIndustry.biz sat down with BAFTA CEO Jane Millichip to debate what’s new this 12 months and what may change in the future.
The very first thing that appears totally different about the 2026 awards is the title: it is now the BAFTA Games Awards with Google Play. Millichip explains that sure classes have had sponsors earlier than, however this marks the first time the ceremony has had a headline sponsor for the entire package and caboodle.
What does that imply in sensible phrases? “Nicely, the income is actually vital for us, as a result of award ceremonies of this calibre and high quality usually are not low-cost,” explains Millichip. “Manufacturing casts have simply skyrocketed. So in fairly easy phrases, the income helps us to ship a actually stunning ceremony with performances.” This 12 months, the ceremony will function a efficiency of “Suteki Da Ne” from Remaining Fantasy X by the Sonaris Ensemble, in addition to a flip by singer Talia Mar.
However Millichip is at pains to level out that though BAFTA accepts and encourages company sponsorship, the BAFTA Games Awards is a very totally different beast from one thing like Geoff Keighley’s extra commercially targeted Recreation Awards. Not that she has something towards the Recreation Awards – “Everybody has their place,” she says, including that BAFTA may even contemplate operating trailers in future, one thing that Keighley’s present is closely constructed round.
“Sneak peeks is one thing that we completely would not rule out, however we might all the time be sure that if we embody it, it is as a result of we’ll have taken an editorial view on it. There would not be a commercial achieve to us in exhibiting a trailer, that is what we might guarantee. … Any further content material in our awards is not monetised, and truly upcoming information is one thing we completely would take a look at.”
Millichip emphasises the significance of BAFTA’s exhaustive, independently overseen judging course of, which is free from commercial influence. “We’re scrutinized by Deloitte throughout movie, video games and tv. And so we’re sticking ruthlessly to that rigor. Our members and jurors take very critically the work that they do when they’re judging and voting.”
“That is vital, as a result of that is why successful a BAFTA is so prized. As a result of you realize that it isn’t overly commercialized – you can’t buy a BAFTA, it doesn’t matter what you do. It is peer voted, and our members take that basically critically, and it is a actual honour to be recognised by your friends.”
Past TV and movie
Despite the fact that the BAFTA Games Awards has been operating for over twenty years now, Millichip is the first to confess that it is nonetheless not as properly recognised as BAFTA’s movie and TV award ceremonies.
“That is positively the case,” she says. “That does not imply to say it is not prioritised at BAFTA, it very a lot is. And it is nonetheless a development sector for us. Our membership in video games is 1,700 and rising.”
The overwhelming majority of BAFTA’s 14,000 or so members are nonetheless in the realms of movie and TV: Millichip says roughly half are concerned in movie. However the trade physique is eager to spice up its video games membership.
Millichip factors in the direction of the significance of BAFTA’s long-running Younger Recreation Designers competitors, in addition to the faculty outreach work BAFTA does. “We work with a charity known as Place2Be, which concentrates its work in areas of poor psychological well being: They’re generally known as schooling chilly spots. So they offer us entry to the areas of best want.”
“At the starter profession degree, we run our bursaries, and we have doubled these in the previous couple of years, significantly with the present financial panorama. We’re discovering that very often actually proficient folks can’t set off their profession, as a result of they can’t afford that piece of sound package, they want a driving license to get to set, or they want a bit extra coaching. So these bursaries have been actually efficient at kickstarting careers.”
She provides that BAFTA additionally offers mid-career help by way of programmes like BAFTA Elevate and BAFTA Breakthrough. “One other space that we wish to pay extra consideration to going ahead is management, as a result of we all know that the underrepresented teams that we help in faculties, in profession starters, and mid-career, we’re seeing that these folks … usually are not getting these senior roles. It is typically on account of the incapacity to get the expertise beneath your belt. So how will we assist that?”
“We’re engaged on a BAFTA-wide mentoring programme, which we’re hoping to launch subsequent 12 months. However I believe in a massively altering panorama, it is how will we encourage and help folks to have resilient, sustainable, agile careers? As a result of I believe that is the key to sustaining a job on this sector.”
Rising illustration
Millichip says that BAFTA is attempting to make sure illustration from totally different teams throughout its membership.
“We have put targets in for our membership throughout all three sectors round ethnicity, incapacity, and underrepresented teams, and we’re hitting these targets,” she says. “In video games, we have set ourselves a goal for 50% membership for girls. [In terms of] new video games members, we’re hitting 51%.”
She says that particularly, BAFTA sees a have to help girls in the extra technical craft classes throughout movie, video games and TV. “There are pockets, significantly in the craft classes – digital camera crew, sound, put up, the technical classes – the place we historically do not see that many ladies. In movie, we have made interventions into our movie awards in the previous couple of years to foreground the work of ladies administrators, for occasion.”
These interventions contain guaranteeing there is parity between female and male administrators in the lengthy checklist that goes out to members. “That is to deliver to the consideration [of] our voting members the work by girls. We’re not saying vote for it, we’re saying simply watch it. As a result of what we present in the analysis that we have executed, we acquired the sense that work by underrepresented teams, there is not a constructive discrimination by our members towards them, however typically their work is not being seen or watched or performed.”
“We have made interventions into our movie awards in the previous couple of years to foreground the work of ladies administrators”
Millichip says this sort of intervention hasn’t been utilized to the BAFTA Games Awards to date, however provides that yearly, BAFTA’s video games committee does assess the judging, voting, and entry standards and appears at the outcomes. “We attempt to not flip flop an excessive amount of, as a result of one 12 months’s outcomes don’t current a development. Nevertheless, once you get to a few years, you are considering, ‘Is that this a development? Ought to this be addressed?'”
She emphasises, nevertheless, that BAFTA doesn’t make modifications for change’s sake. “An excessive amount of tinkering is not good for the sector, however not being inflexible is additionally one thing that we attempt to do.”
Millichip says she would not rule out making interventions to make sure gender parity in the lengthy checklist for future BAFTA Games Awards classes, however provides that video games are fairly totally different in nature from movie and TV. “The way in which video games come collectively and are designed, it is rather more crew primarily based than these large craft classes in movie and tv, like writing and directing. So whether or not the identical intervention would work throughout video games, I do not wish to opine on that. However are we addressing and are we alive to challenges inside the sector? I will surely hope so, sure.”
Again in January, composer Jessica Curry – who stays the solely solo lady to have taken house a BAFTA Games Award for Music – stated that it is “terribly onerous to exist as a lady” in the video games trade, which she stated is “proof against any type of distinction” and is “very protecting of its roots, which had been male and white.”
Millichip says that she can’t remark from private expertise on the difficulties in the video games trade, having come from a background in TV and movie, however she does recognise there are “systemic challenges regarding the local weather, in addition to underrepresented teams. However equally, I see different underrepresented teams actually thriving in the video games trade, so it is a peculiar beast in that regard. I believe our position at BAFTA is to showcase constructive position fashions, foreground them by our editorial program of masterclasses, showcases, that type of factor, and to help.”
“And if there are tough conversations available, we’re comfortable to convene them. We’re not afraid to face a tough dialog.”
Which may take the type of a debate amongst members both publicly or behind closed doorways. “We try this throughout all three sectors when our members ask us to, actually. So if the difficulties confronted by any sector of our membership are pronounced … then we’re very comfortable to convene the dialog. However general, we attempt to preserve a constructive, encouraging, supporting position inside the sport sector, as a result of there’s a lot to be stated for it as properly. And we’re surrounded at BAFTA by unbelievable feminine position fashions – and Jessica is one in all them.”
Transmedia
The London Games Pageant’s Display screen Play occasion this week captured the rising curiosity round movie and TV variations of video video games, with Ubisoft’s Helene Juguet saying that almost 25% of all motion pictures being made in the subsequent few years are primarily based on gaming IP. BAFTA, with its membership spanning movie, TV and video games, appears to be uniquely positioned to foster transmedia collaborations.
Millichip says this is one thing BAFTA want to deal with. “I discover coming from a movie and TV background, I get extra out of going to our sport classes than I do TV and movie typically. So merely encouraging our movie members to go to video games occasions and vice versa is one in all the actually easy issues I might love to do extra of. I might wish to get extra classes going the place you may have all three sectors on stage collectively.”
She notes there’s a wholesome translation of gaming IP into legacy media proper now. “However I believe the extra fascinating piece is truly seeing how these creatives and practitioners get on after they work collectively and the place they go along with it – slightly than merely translating one another’s work.” She’s eager to see how folks throughout movie, TV, and video games “influence not solely one another’s storytelling strategies, however manufacturing strategies as properly.”
“Individuals who care about video games, their heads usually are not turned in the identical means by conventional celebrities”
However one stark distinction between the world of gaming and the worlds of movie and tv is the relative lack of celebrities in the former. Whereas BAFTA’s movie and TV awards can profit from appearances by main TV and film personalities, video video games do not actually have an equal.
Millichip would not suppose it is a drawback, nevertheless. “We do get celebrities attending the Games Awards and presenting at the Games Awards. They are typically sport gamers themselves. So for the previous couple of years we have had Phil Wang: He is an absolute sport fanatic.”
“It relies upon who you are attempting to draw actually, as a result of we would like the Games Awards to be fashionable with individuals who care about video games. And I discover that individuals who care about video games, their heads usually are not turned in the identical means by conventional celebrities. … So I believe it is fascinating slightly than a drawback.”
She factors out that the tradition of the online game world is extra casual and democratic than the rarefied world of TV and movie. “And I discover that basically refreshing. Actually refreshing.”