Monday, February 20, 2006

BAFTA salutes Hollywood (largely)

Given the list of nominees, it hardly comes as a surprise. This weekend's Bafta awards overwhelmingly favoured US and UK releases, despite the fact that European cinema is in one of its strong periods. The short overview is that Best Film went to "Brokeback Mountain", Best British Film went to "Wallace and Gromit: Curse of the Were-Rabbit" and Best Original Screenplay went to Paul Haggis/Bobby Moresco for "Crash". Best Film not in the English Language went to Audiard's "The Beat That my Heart Skipped", the only non-English feature. See the full list of Bafta winners here.

I thought maybe this ultra-Anglophone selection reflected a policy on the part of the jury. But having sat on juries, I know they can only choose from what they are offered. So I had a look at the films that were actually entered. See the list here. I'm not sure what to make of it. Does this mean that most French and German (or indeed Asian) producers are not interested in the Baftas, which would surprise me. One of the conditions for entrance is a UK theatrical release. It is even specified that "Films from all countries are eligible in all categories, with the exception of The Alexander Korda Award, The Carl Foreman Award and the Short Film Award." So are so few French and German films released in the UK?

2 comments:

RC said...

I don't know about you, but I was pretty sad that the Constant Gardner didn't get more loving from the BAFTAs.

--RC of strangeculture.blogspot.com

A-Lyric said...

True, but it did well at the BIFA, which is arguably the more interesting award.