Welsh stars of the big and small screen are set to be honoured this October when the 2023 edition of the BAFTA Cymru Awards returns to South Wales.
One of the biggest nights for Wales’ ever-expanding creative industry, the awards, which are overseen by the Welsh branch of the British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA), celebrate excellence in production, direction and editing work in Welsh-made films or television series, as well as honouring outstanding on-screen performances by Welsh actors and actresses.
This year, the awards cover a total of 22 categories, ranging from direction to costume design. The ceremony, hosted by The One Show presenter Alex Jones, will take place on the 15 October at the ICCW in the Welsh city of Newport, with fans able to watch along on the official BAFTA YouTube channel.
The production topping the list with the most number of award nominations for 2023 is Y Sŵn, a film that tells the story of Welshman Gwynfor Evans’ struggle to establish a Welsh-language television channel during the early 1980s. The feature film, which is in Welsh, has seven nominations in total, including one for best director and best production design.
Other productions with multiple nominations include Stori’r Iaith, a television show that explores what the Welsh language means to four famous individuals, and Greenham, a documentary series delving into the huge, multi-year protests that took place at RAF Greenham Common, a nuclear weapons site in Berkshire, England, which were started by a Welsh women’s group. The two productions, both of which were shown on Welsh-language TV channel S4C, have five and four nominations respectively.
Other shows up for awards include the high-profile BBC drama His Dark Materials and Disney-backed fantasy adventure Willow, shown in the image above, both of which were filmed extensively in Wales.
Individual stars receiving nominations, meanwhile, include actors Graham Land, who starred in Welsh-language drama Dal Y Mellt (the first Welsh-language drama series to feature on Netflix) and Rhys Ifans, who played Otto Hightower in the big-budget Game of Thrones prequel, House of the Dragon. In the actresses category, Katy Wix receives a nomination for her role as Jules in the Channel 4 sitcom Big Boys, and is joined on the nomination list by Rakie Ayola, who appeared in the inaugural season of BBC One’s thriller series The Pact. Rakie Ayola is also set to receive the prestigious Siân Phillips Award during the ceremony, in recognition of the actress’s extensive acting and producing credits over three decades.
Speaking about the awards, BAFTA Cymru Chair, Angharad Mair, said, ‘Over recent years, we’ve seen enormous growth in the creative sectors here in Wales and it’s also been incredible to see a rise in the number of Welsh locations and productions on screen globally and internationally.’
‘With film and production work created and made by Welsh talent reaching every part of the globe – celebrating, promoting and championing the hard work and creativity coming out of our country is more important than ever,’ she added.
Find out more about the upcoming award ceremony, and see the BAFTA Cymru 2023 nomination list in full, on BAFTA Cymru’s official website and social channels:
BAFTA Cymru official website: bafta.org/awards/cymru-awards
Instagram: instagram.com/baftacymru
X (formerly Twitter): twitter.com/BAFTACymru
BAFTA YouTube channel: www.youtube.com/@bafta