Rebel Wilson Set to Host BAFTA Awards

K.J. Yossman
·3 min read
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Rebel Wilson will host the BAFTA Awards in March.

The “Pitch Perfect” actor stole the show at the ceremony in 2020 with a gag-filled speech while presenting the award for best director during which she managed to mention Prince Harry, Prince Andrew, coronavirus (then still but a conceptual threat), the lack of swag bags, “Cats” (in which she starred) and the lack of women nominated for best director.

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Last year’s awards took place semi-virtually and were hosted by British presenters Edith Bowman and Dermot O’Leary.

“I look at the exceptional, daring talent nominated in this category and I don’t think I could do what they do,” Wilson said of the all-male nominees. “Honestly, I just don’t have the balls.”

Given everything that has happened since February 2020 – including Prince Andrew effectively being fired as a royal and of course the global pandemic – she will no doubt have plenty of material for the event, which Prince William usually attends in his role as president.

“I am very honoured to be hosting the EE British Academy Film Awards in March, where Covid will no longer exist because it will clearly have been canceled by then,” said Wilson. “It’s going to be so much fun! I don’t wanna put any pressure on this – I know I’m not going to be funny because I am no longer fat. And besides, I’m not going to ‘sweat-it’ with nerves because I have a peculiar medical condition where I can’t sweat…or cause offense to people because of my adorable Australian accent.”

“So basically I’ll just be there to hang out with Dame Judi Dench and together we’ll both try and bond with Daniel Craig. And yes, I do mean ‘bond’. This show will be an anniversary celebration of some important British film franchises such as ‘Harry Potter’ and not such as ‘Cats.’ Everybody’s going to love it, I’m sure! See you guys in March!”

Amanda Berry, chief executive of BAFTA added: “We are delighted to welcome Rebel Wilson as this year’s host of the EE British Academy Film Awards. Rebel has stolen the show at several previous Film Awards, and we’re hugely excited to see her bring her fantastic charisma and humour to the whole show as we celebrate the very best in film.”

“We would also like to thank Edith Bowman and Dermot O’Leary who did a truly wonderful job hosting last year’s ceremony in exceptionally challenging circumstances and we look forward to working with them again in the future.”

BAFTA’s longlists of films competing in the awards was released on Wednesday, with “No Time to Die,” “West Side Story” and “Don’t Look Up” among those that will potentially be honored at the ceremony.

Nominations will be revealed on Feb. 3 and the in-person ceremony will take place on Sunday March 13 at the Royal Albert Hall. It will be broadcast on BBC One, BBC One HD and BBC iPlayer.

On Thursday it was announced that the Critics Choice Awards would be moving to the same day, pushed backwards from their original January date due to the surge in COVID-19.

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