BAFTA Bends The Rules To Allow ‘Killing Eve’ To Pick Up 14 Nominations For TV & TV Craft Awards
Killing Eve may have scored 14 nominations for the forthcoming BAFTA TV Awards and BAFTA TV Craft Awards but its entry isn’t without controversy.
It seems that the Phoebe Waller-Bridge-created show may have slid into the awards conversation through a slight bending of the rules.
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The BAFTA eligibility requirements note that for a show to qualify for a nomination it “must have had the worldwide premiere transmission in the UK.” It goes on to say that “creative control: must ‘reside’ within the UK and/or a UK broadcaster must have the primary editorial control over the programme.”
While, the show did air on the BBC in the UK, it was quite clearly a BBC America commission and was only subsequently acquired by the British public broadcaster, via Endeavor Content, after the AMC Networks-backed broadcaster ordered it.
The cat-and-mouse spy thriller is clearly very British in its tone and its creator, Waller-Bridge, its production company, Sid Gentle Films, and many of its exec producers including Sally Woodward Gentle, are British. But the show, which stars Sandra Oh and Jodie Comer, is still a U.S. commission, something that BAFTA was aware of when it unveiled the nominations this morning.
A BAFTA spokeswoman told Deadline, “BAFTA’s TV Committee has deemed Killing Eve eligible owing to the significant creative contribution from key talent residing in the UK both in front of, and behind, the camera. Development and post-production also took place in the UK.”
Killing Eve, which was once being developed at British pay-TV giant Sky, was nominated in 14 categories including best drama series, best writing for a drama, two lead actress nods fro Comer and Oh, best supporting actor for Kim Bodnia, best supporting actress for Fiona Shaw as well as in Costume Design, Director Fiction, Editing Fiction, Original Music, Photography & Lighting Fiction, Production Design, Sound Fiction and Titles and Graphic Identity.
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