Jonte Richardson quits as BAFTA judge over handling of racist slur

Jonte Richardson has stepped down from BAFTA's emerging talent judging panel in protest over the academy's handling of a racial slur at the Bafta Film Awards. jonte richardson said BAFTA had "repeatedly failed" to safeguard the black community and described the episode as "utterly unforgivable. "

Jonte Richardson quits BAFTA role

shared online, the filmmaker said he would no longer serve on the emerging talent judging panel because of the organisation's handling of "the unfortunate Tourette's N-Word incident. " He called the handling "utterly unforgivable" and added: "I cannot and will not contribute my time, energy and expertise to an organisation that has repeatedly failed to safeguard the dignity of its Black guests, members and the Black creative community. " Arts and entertainment reporter @BethanyMinelle highlighted the resignation.

What happened at the ceremony

The slurs took place towards the start of Sunday night's BAFTA ceremony. John Davidson, whose life story inspired the film I Swear and who was attending after inspiring that film, shouted the N-word while Sinners stars Michael B Jordan and Delroy Lindo were presenting the first prize of the night's awards. Vanity Fair described the moment as happening while the Sinners stars were presenting the award for best visual effects. Davidson's tics could be heard several times during the ceremony; he shouted loudly several times before and during the Bafta ceremony, and the outburst followed an opening monologue from host Alan Cumming during which Davidson was involuntarily ticking.

Broadcast edits and removals

The ceremony had been edited down from three hours to two after taking place on Sunday night and was shown on One on a two-hour delay. The offending moment was not edited out and was broadcast and streamed on iPlayer; it remained available for over 12 hours and on Monday morning before the ceremony was removed. The broadcaster subsequently took the recording down to edit out the slur. Kate Phillips, chief content officer, sent an email to all staff on Tuesday apologising for the error and confirming another racial slur had been removed from the broadcast. Ms Phillips wrote: "The edit team removed another racial slur from the broadcast. This one was aired in error and we would never have knowingly allowed this to be broadcast. We take full responsibility for what happened. " She ended the memo by apologising for "the distress caused. "

Responses, statements and apologies

The issued an apology and: "We apologise that this was not edited out prior to broadcast and it will now be removed from the version on iPlayer. " In a separate statement the said: "Some viewers may have heard strong and offensive language during the Bafta Film Awards. This arose from involuntary verbal tics associated with Tourette syndrome, and as explained during the ceremony it was not intentional. " The corporation declined to comment further on why it wasn't initially edited or bleeped out. Bafta said it acknowledged the "harm this has caused, address what happened and apologise to all. " Conservative Party leader Kemi Badenoch said the had made "a horrible mistake" by not editing it out at the time and added: "I think an apology is important, they need to explain why it wasn't bleeped out. "

Davidson's background and quotes

John Davidson is a Tourette's campaigner from Galashiels in Scotland who was made an MBE in 2019. He has said he was "deeply mortified" his involuntary tics caused him to yell out and added: "I have spent my life trying to support and empower the Tourette's community and to teach empathy, kindness and understanding from others and I will continue to do so. " Tourette's is characterised by sudden, involuntary and repetitive movements or sounds, known as tics. The Tourette's Action charity says between 10% and 30% of people with the condition have tics that produce socially unacceptable words such as swearing, known as coprolalia.

Aftermath at after-parties and dinner

After the incident, Delroy Lindo told Vanity Fair that he and Michael B Jordan "did what we had to do" as they carried on presenting the category, but said he wished "someone from Bafta spoke to us afterward. " Variety said Davidson appeared to remove himself from the theatre after the incident. Sinners production designer Hannah Beachler wrote on X that the situation "is almost impossible... it happened 3 times that night, and one of the three times was directed at myself on the way to dinner after the show. " At a Warner Bros. after-party Lindo was in good spirits and was seen chatting with his costar Wunmi Mosaku, who won the BAFTA for best supporting actress. Michael B Jordan attended an after-party thrown by British GQ and Vogue briefly, listed as one of the event's hosts. Following the ceremony, BAFTA hosted a dinner for the nominees and guests where many were speaking about the incident.

Other edits and ceremony details

Other moments were removed from the broadcast, including Akinola Davies Jr's call to "free Palestine" at the end of his speech and filmmaker Paul Thomas Anderson's use of the word "p***. " The told Deadline that "all edits were made to ensure the program was delivered to time. " Meanwhile, Robert Aramayo, star of I Swear, won the BAFTA rising-star award on Sunday as well as the lead-actor prize over Timothée Chalamet and Leonardo DiCaprio. Ryan Coogler won best original screenplay and said: "I come from a community that loves me and spoke a lot of power into me. They made me believe that I could do this. That I could be a writer. "

Jonte Richardson said he would no longer contribute to the judging panel in light of what he described as the academy's repeated failures; the resignation is the clearest public fallout to date from the incident.