Bafta's loyalty lies where?

By: Sunil Noronha
Friday, February 24, 2006

In this years yearly BAFTA awards, America was represented more than the British cinema. The four big ones in this year's competition - Brokeback Mountain, Capote Crash and Good Night and Good Luck were all from the other side of the Atlantic Ocean. The association being qualitative of its British nature should rightly support the products of the British Film Industry, but it seems to be giving in to Hollywood. The signs strongly show this. Witherspoon was preferred over Rachel Weisz, Ziyi Zhang (Memoirs of a Geisha). Movies shot in the nation by outsiders were not considered for the competition - Match Point and Jarhead. Harry Potter and The Prisoner of Azkaban picked up a Best Picture Nomination against none for this years edition of the magic tale Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. The associations effort to keep their loyalty at home in the form of the Alexander Korda Award for outstanding British film and the Carl Foreman Award for special achievement by a first-time British director, writer or producer.

These awards too had foreign intrusions, with a part of the nominations going to out-of-nation candidates. These anti-British film industry policies taken by BAFTA only reflect the mix of international flavour that is its membership. Its members are spread across the United States and those who are not British. They are those foreign hands that make the British Film industry. So it anti-English film, industry outlook is not all that contradictory.

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