When Marielle Heller’s film Diary of a Teenage Girl was released last month, a huge amount of the coverage focused not on the film, but its classification. The film explores the sexual awakening of 15-year-old Minnie (played by Bel Powley), including her affair with her mother’s boyfriend Monroe (Alexander Skarsgård). Understandably, the director’s accusation that the film was awarded its 18 certificate by an all-male panel, despite its focus on a younger teen girl, provoked anger from filmmakers and cultural critics alike.
However, David Cooke, the director of the British Board of Film Classification (BBFC) has told the New Statesman that the accusation is unfounded. The film was classified according to the BBFC’s guidelines (created through regular public consultation), thanks mainly to its eight sex scenes, use of cocaine, LSD and marijuana, and what Cooke calls the “glamorisation” of drug use in the film. He added that the age gap between Minnie and Monroe, and the fact that Minnie is underage, would also have affected the decision.
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