The
British Academy of Film and Television Arts
(BAFTA) is a British charity that hosts annual awards
shows for excellence in film, television, television craft, video
games and forms of animation. They are often cited as a British
equivalent to the
Oscars.
Introduction
BAFTA was founded in 1947 as
The British Film
Academy, by
David Lean,
Alexander Korda,
Carol
Reed,
Charles Laughton,
Roger Manvell and other leading
figures in the British film industry. In 1958, the Academy merged
with
The Guild of Television Producers and
Directors to form
The Society of Film and
Television, which eventually became The British Academy of
Film and Television Arts in 1976.
BAFTA's is an independent charity with a mission to "support,
develop and promote the art forms of the moving image, by
identifying and rewarding excellence, inspiring practitioners and
benefiting the public". In addition to high profile awards
ceremonies BAFTA runs a year-round programme of educational events
including film screenings and tribute evenings. BAFTA is supported
by a membership of around 6000 people from the film, television and
video game industries.
BAFTA's main office is on Piccadilly
in London
, but it also
has branches in Scotland
(BAFTA
Scotland), Wales
(BAFTA
Cymru), New York
City
(BAFTA East Coast) and Los
Angeles
(BAFTA/LA).
The Academy's awards are in the form of a theatrical mask designed
by American sculptor
Mitzi Cunliffe,
which was commissioned by the Guild of Television Producers in
1955. Since 1989, the Los Angeles branch,
BAFTA/LA, holds its own awards ceremony each year,
called the
Britannia Awards.
In
November 2007 a special tribute programme was shown on ITV in the UK
celebrating
60 years of the organisation called Happy Birthday
BAFTA.
Awards presented in London
British Academy Film Awards
BAFTA's
annual film awards ceremony is known as the British Academy Film Awards,
which in 2008 came from the Royal Opera House
, having taken place since 2000 in the flagship
Odeon cinema on
Leicester Square
. The ceremony previously took place in April
or May, but from 2002 onwards has taken place in February, in order
to precede the
Oscars. The awards are
mostly open to all nationalities, though there is an award for Best
British Film and Best Newcomer. The
2009 ceremony was held on
the 8th February, also at the Royal Opera House.
The Awards in 2009 included:
- Slumdog Millionaire
(Film)
- Danny Boyle (Director), for
Slumdog
Millionaire
- Mickey Rourke (Leading
Actor), for The
Wrestler
- Kate Winslet (Leading
Actress), for The
Reader
- Heath Ledger (Supporting
Actor), for The Dark
Knight (Posthumous)
- Penélope Cruz (Supporting
Actress), for Vicky
Cristina Barcelona
- Martin McDonagh (Original
Screenplay), for In
Bruges
- Simon Beaufoy (Adapted
Screenplay), for Slumdog
Millionaire
- A.R. Rahman (Music), for Slumdog Millionaire
Rising Star Award
Presented at the Orange British Academy Film Awards the Orange
Rising Star Award recognises exceptional new acting talent in the
film industry. A shortlist of six nominees is selected by BAFTA
juries regardless of the nominee's gender and nationality. The
winner is then voted for by the public. This award is dedicated to
the memory of
Mary Selway, the
highly-respected, BAFTA-winning British
casting director who died in 2004.
British Academy Television Awards
The
British Academy Television Awards usually take
place in April or May, with craft awards having a separate ceremony
slightly later in the year.
The Awards are also often referred to simply as "the BAFTAs" or, to
differentiate them from the film awards, sometimes as the "BAFTA
Television Awards". They have been awarded annually since 1954. The
first ever Awards consisted of six categories. Until 1958, they
were awarded by the
Guild of Television
Producers and Directors. From 1958 onwards, after the Guild had
merged with the British Film Academy, the organisation was known as
the Society of Film and Television Arts. In 1976, this became the
British Academy of Film and Television Arts, the name the
organisation goes under still as of 2007.
From 1968 until 1997, the BAFTA Film and Television awards were
presented in one joint ceremony known simply as the BAFTA Awards,
but in order to streamline the ceremonies from 1998 onwards they
were split in two. The Television Awards are usually presented in
April, with a separate ceremony for the Television Craft Awards on
a different date. The Craft Awards are presented for more technical
areas of the industry, such as special effects, production design,
or costumes.
The Awards are only open to British programmes — with the exception
of the audience-voted Pioneer Award — but any
cable,
satellite,
terrestrial or
digital television stations broadcasting
in the UK are eligible to submit entries, as are independent
production companies who have produced programming for the
channels. Individual performances, such as from actors, can either
be entered by the performers themselves or by the broadcasters. The
programmes being entered must have been broadcast on or between 1
January and 31 December of the year preceding the Awards ceremony
(so, between 1 January and 31 December 2004 for the 2005
Awards).
Baftagate
The 1991 awards were controversial when
Prime Suspect beat
G.B.H. to win the Best Drama Serial
award. In what became known as
"Baftagate", four
of the jurors publicly declared that they had voted for
G.B.H. and demanded to
see the votes, but these had been destroyed.
British Academy Television Craft Awards
The Television Craft Awards are presented for the behind the camera
skills involved television production. In 2000 the Awards were
separated from the British Academy Television Awards. The Craft
Awards also now include several categories associated with
interactive media.
As of 2007, the awards included the following categories:
- Breakthrough Talent
- Costume Design
- Director - Factual
- Director - Fictional/Entertainment
- Editing - Factual
- Editing - Fictional/Entertainment
- Interactive Creative Contribution
- Interactive Innovation - Content
- Interactive Innovation - Service/Platform
- Makeup and Hair Design
|
- Original Television Music
- Photography & Lighting - Fictional/Entertainment
- Photography - Factual
- Production Design
- Sound - Factual
- Sound - Fictional/Entertainment
- Titles
- Visual Effects
- Writer
|
British Academy Children's Awards
The British Academy Children's Awards are presented annually in
November to reward excellence in the art forms of the moving image
aimed at children.
The Academy has a long history of recognising and rewarding
Children's programming presenting two awards at the 1969 ceremony -
The Flame of Knowledge Award for Schools Programmes and the
Harlequin Award for Children's Programmes.
This year's awards ceremony included 19 categories across film,
television, video games and online content. The Awards ceremony
took place on 30 November 2008 at the London Hilton Hotel.
BAFTA Children's Awards 2008 winners
Since 2007 the Children's Awards have included a Kids Vote Award
voted for by children under 14 and a
CBBC me
and my movie award, a children's film-making initiative to inspire
and enable children to make their own films and tell their own
stories.
British Academy Video Games Awards
BAFTA first recognised video games and other interactive media at
its inaugural
Interactive Entertainment
Awards ceremony in 1998, ushering in the first change to its
rules since the admittance of television thirty years earlier.
Among the first winning games were
GoldenEye 007,
Gran Turismo and interactive comedy
MindGym, sharing the spotlight with
the
BBC News Online website
which won the news category four years running.
The event was split into the
BAFTA Video Games
Awards and the
BAFTA Interactive Awards in
2003, and while high profile winners like
Halo 2 and
Half-Life
2 made huge headlines, the interactive division was
discontinued and disappeared from BAFTA's publicity material after
only two ceremonies.
Robin Beanland once won an award for
his music composition on the
Nintendo
64's
Conker's Bad Fur
Day
In 2006 BAFTA announced their decision "to give video games equal
status with film and television", and ensured that the ceremony
held at London's
Camden Roundhouse
on October 5 was televised for the first time.
Awards presented in Los Angeles
Britannia Awards
The BAFTA/LA awards ceremony, the
Britannia
Awards, started in 1989 and happens in October/November
each year. There are no awards given to films or TV programmes,
only to individuals.
During the first ten years only one award was given at each event,
called the "Britannia Award for Excellence in Film", but since 1999
the number of awards have grown, and in 2005 they were four: "The
Stanley Kubrick Britannia Award for Excellence in Film" (the
original award was renamed in 2000 to honour
Stanley Kubrick), "The John Schlesinger
Britannia Award for Artistic Excellence in Directing" (added in
2003 in honour of
John
Schlesinger), "The Britannia Award for Artistic Excellence in
International Entertainment", and "The Cunard Britannia Award for
Lifetime Contributions to International Film". With the exception
of the Stanley Kubrick and John Schlesinger awards, which are
always given, both the number of awards and their titles may vary
from year to year.
The 2007 recipients were:
- Denzel Washington -
(Stanley Kubrick Britannia Awards for Excellence in
Film)
- Martin Campbell - (The John
Schlesinger Britannia Award for Artistic Excellence in
Directing)
- Kate Winslet - (The Britannia
Award for British Artist of the Year)
- New Line Cinema's Bob Shaye &
Michael Lynne - (Cunard Britannia
Award for Lifetime Contributions to International Film)
- Richard Curtis - (The
BAFTA/LA Humanitarian Award presented by Volvo)
The 2006 recipients were:
- Sir Sidney Poitier - (the
Cunard Britannia Award for Lifetime Contributions to International
Film)
- Rachel Weisz - (The Britannia
Award for Artist of the Year)
- Anthony Minghella - (The
John Schlesinger Britannia Award for Artistic Excellence in
Directing)
Previous recipients of the Britannia Awards have included
Tom Cruise,
Elizabeth
Taylor,
Mike Newell,
Ronald Neame,
Albert Broccoli,
Michael Caine,
Peter
Ustinov,
Martin Scorsese,
Anthony Hopkins,
Dustin Hoffman,
John
Travolta,
Stanley Kubrick,
Steven Spielberg,
George Lucas,
Hugh
Grant,
Peter Weir,
Tom Hanks,
Angela
Lansbury and
Helen Mirren.
Awards presented in Scotland and Wales
BAFTA Scotland
BAFTA Scotland is the national organisation
for Scotland of the
British Academy of Film and Television Arts mainly funded by the
main Scottish broadcasters. Formed in 1997, they hold an
annual awards ceremony to recognise achievement by performers and
production staff in Scottish film and television. These are
separate from the UK-wide British Academy Television Awards and
British Academy Film Awards, although films and programmes
recognised by BAFTA Scotland can also sometimes feature at BAFTA's
UK awards.
From 1998 to 2002, BAFTA Scotland held an award ceremony focusing
on new talent; the organisation resumed giving annual awards in
2005.
BAFTA Cymru
BAFTA Cymru is the national organisation for
Wales of the British Academy of Film and Television
Arts. Formed in 1991, they hold an annual awards ceremony to
recognise achievement by performers and production staff in
Welsh-made films and television programmes. These are separate from
the UK-wide British Academy Television Awards and British Academy
Film Awards, although films and programmes recognised by BAFTA
Cymru may also feature at BAFTA's national awards.
Notes
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