Five Nights At Freddy’s and Billie Eilish lead the complaints to the BBFC in 2023, its new annual report has revealed. More here:
The British Board Of Film Classification – better known as the BBFC – has today released its annual report, the headline of which is the peak number of 12A and 15 certificate films in 2023.
However, I always turn straight to the ‘feedback from the public’ section – page 10 of this year’s report – and it rarely disappoints, even if 2023 was quite a calm year.
The BBFC received 148 complaints about its classification decisions for movies released in 2023, an increase from 84 on the previous year.* The hotbed this time was material getting a 15 certificate that those a little younger wanted to see.
The most complained about decision – 26 people opting to get in touch – concerned the 15 certificate given to the movie Five Nights At Freddy’s. There’s some legitimacy to the complaints too, given the film went out as PG-13 in the US. But it wasn’t adults complaining: the people getting in touch were all under 15. The BBFC defended its decision due to the sustained and strong threat in the movie’s horror sequences.
Next up? Billie Eilish: Live At The O2 again got under 15s writing in (all power to them, too), complaining about the 15 certificate the concert got. Don’t blame the BBFC though: blame Billie. The concert was a bit too potty-mouthed to go out as 12A, and thus a re-edited version was put forward.
Finally, also on the complaints list: Guardians Of The Galaxy Vol 3, which had a 12A certificate, but it was the “moments of injury detail, and scenes of cruelty against fantastical talking animals” that people took umbrage with. The BBFC stuck by its decision, arguing “much of the experimentation is implied – we see the end results in the injuries that have been inflicted on the animals, rather than this being explicitly shown. Although this clearly parallels animal testing in the real world, it occurs in a science-fiction context that is substantively distanced from real world events. As such, these scenes are acceptable at 12A”.
The full report can be read here.
*Since publishing, the BBFC has updated the number of complaints received in 2022 from 109 to 84. 109 was the number of complaints received in 2021.
