More than six months after the British Academy faced one of its biggest controversies in years after the N-word was shouted out during the BAFTA Film awards ceremony, BAFTA has had to revisit the moment as it contends with the upcoming BAFTA Scotland awards. The incident — which came to significantly overshadow the 2026 awards ceremony on Feb. 22 — saw John Davidson, the Tourette syndrome activist and inspiration for the film “I Swear,” involuntarily shout the racial slur while Michael B. Jordan and Delroy Lindo were on stage to present the first award of the evening.
Following the nominations announcement on Thursday, a letter to members from chair Sara Putt and CEO Jane Millichip, confirmed that major considerations had been undertaken to allow Davidson to attend the upcoming ceremony on Nov. 15 in Glasgow. BAFTA said that there had been consultations with organizations such as Tourettes Action and Tourette Scotland and with Davidson. An independent review ordered by BAFTA in the wake of the incident concluded that that there were a “number of structural weaknesses in BAFTA’s planning, escalation procedures and crisis coordination arrangements,” but found no evidence of “malicious intent” or “institutional racism.” The letter to members sent Thursday highlighted this and said the British Academy had since “worked extensively and consulted widely” to learn from what happened and the “racial harm experienced by our community” and to make its awards as “inclusive and as safe as possible.” As the BAFTA Awards season is now underway, with the Cymru Awards set to take place on Sunday, quickly followed by the Scotland Awards in November, we wanted to take this opportunity to update you on the work BAFTA has undertaken since the Film Awards earlier this year.
The independent review commissioned by the Board in March identified specific areas for improvement. Since then, the BAFTA team has worked extensively and consulted widely on best practice to learn from what happened in February and the racial harm experienced by our community, and to make our Awards events as inclusive and as safe as possible. We have strengthened and centralised our safeguarding, risk assessment and compliance processes, creating a more connected, intersectional and cross-organisational approach to live event planning.
We have also simplified communication and escalation routes so concerns can reach the right people quickly, and strengthened briefings for everyone working with us, including hosts, presenters and citation readers. With all our guests in mind, we have sought independent advice on inclusion and accessibility best practice from a range of experts. There is no ‘one size fits all’ approach and adjustments should always be tailored, so our planning will aim to better understand individual requirements and consider how this can be supported alongside the safety and dignity of everyone attending.
Where adjustments are possible, we will work closely with individuals, supported by experienced access coordinators, to accommodate them. We recognise that rebuilding trust requires more than changing processes. The review also challenged us to strengthen BAFTA’s cultural understanding and capability.
We have engaged with organisations and experts with experience across race, disability, inclusion and international cultural context and we are developing further training for our staff. For the upcoming BAFTA Scotland Awards, for which I Swear has received seven nominations, we have worked with both safeguarding and inclusion experts to consider the arrangements necessary to enable John Davidson MBE, whose life inspired I Swear and who is an Executive Producer of the film, to participate in the safest way possible for all. We have consulted organisations including Tourettes Action and Tourette Scotland and, most importantly, we have been speaking directly to John.
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