The impact of coronavirus on the arts has exceeded expectations. From postponing exhibitions to cancelling awards ceremonies, it is unclear how long the cultural sector will take to recover.
However, the Bafta Games Awards made the decision to proceed with their ceremony, using a YouTube live stream on Thursday evening to present the awards.
Host of the ceremony, Dara O’Briain acknowledged the somewhat unorthodox nature of the awards, saying that: “I’ve hosted these awards many times before, usually from some plush concert hall in the middle of London.”
He continued: “these awards in their entirety will take place in the room in my house with a big telly in which I play video games.”
Government guidance on social distancing, in which individuals are to stand two metres apart from one another, means that conventional award ceremonies are not possible.
Bafta made the decision to cancel the live awards ceremony, due to be held on 12 March, two weeks prior to the country wide lockdown. According to O’Briain, the academy had discussed alternatives to the live event almost immediately after its cancellation.
He said: “I think it was in the first conversation, I said, ‘Wait, why don’t you just send over the awards logo and I’ll stick it on a screen behind me,’” he recalled in a telephone interview. “I mean, bar a dais, that’s essentially what an awards show looks like.”
O’Briain recorded his contributions live, while nominees all recorded their acceptance speeches as if they had won the award. The ceremony was stitched together by the academy, and nobody would know who won until the evening itself.
The live stream concluded with O’Briain asking viewers to introduce one another to new games. He said that: “for the time being that’s what we’ll have to rely on.”
