The days are getting shorter, and the air chillier. That can only mean one thing: awards show season is on its way.
True, voting for the BAFTAs, the Oscars, the WGA awards, and all the others are still months away–but I’ve already started receiving a trickle of e-mail invitations to special film screenings for BAFTA members. Movie addict that I am, when I see these first few invitations flutter into my inbox, my heart leaps as joyously as if they were the first changed leaves of autumn.
Last year, I wrote a giant single post about the movie-filled madness that is awards season. This year, I’m going to try to write about things as they happen, to give you more of a sense of the steady onslaught of screenings that fight for an awards-show voter’s attention.
As always, I want to emphasize that I don’t speak for BAFTA, or anybody else other than myself…
There are four main ways that a studio can get its film in front of BAFTA voters:
1. Loan a print to BAFTA, which is then screened for members at BAFTA’s building near Picadilly Circus. This takes place all year round. There aren’t any screenings in August, but except for that short break, there’s generally several of these screenings per week. These films cover a wide spectrum of genre and filmmaking ambition: small Latin American films like Familia Rodante, big-budget Hollywood fare like Revenge of the Sith, horror films like House of Wax, and so on. With such a wide variety of films, each film is usually only screened twice. That means that studios wanting to guarantee members see a given film need to …
2. Arrange additional screenings. From late October or so through the beginning of January, every screening room in London seems to be in use every night of the week, screening the films that the distributors think have the best shot at getting an award. (I’m guessing House of Wax won’t get one of these screenings.) With so many films to choose from, it can be hard to narrow them down, which is why studios will often…
3. Arrange special event screenings, featuring a Q&A with the director, writer, star(s), and/or producer of the film. Sometimes studios kill two birds with one stone and invite BAFTA members to the film’s star-studden UK premieres. These events are often over-subscribed, and reservations are taken on either a first-come-first-served basis or a lottery basis. I’ve recently received invitations to Pride & Prejudice, March of the Penguins, and Brokeback Mountain. Unfortunately, I didn’t win the ticket lottery in any of them. Still, even if I don’t make it to any of the additional screenings of these films, I’ll probably get the chance to see them at home, because the studios are kind enough to…
4. Send out DVD screeners of the films they want to make sure BAFTA voters don’t miss.
So that’s the overview. I’ll keep you posted as the screening invites start to pile up.
Does BAFTA recognise films not made in the UK as “foreign films?” Would “Sith” be a foreign film?
Interestingly, the relevant BAFTA award category is actually “Film Not In The English Language,” which would presumably not include “Sith,” its occasional lapses into various alien tongues notwithstanding. This category could technically include a British film shot in, say, Gaelic; I don’t know if it ever has.
There’s also a separate category for “Best British Film,” which includes “Only films that have been registered with the Department of Culture, Media and Sport as British.” I’m not sure what rules the Department of Culture, Media, and Sport uses. I assume it has more to do with funding and/or shooting location than with the talent behind the camera–last year’s nominees included Harry Potter And The Prisoner of Azkaban which was filmed in the UK, and of course based on a book by a British author–but it was financed by the American studios, written by an American, and directed by a Mexican.
The definition of what nationality for a particular film still confuses me, but I always think of Harry Potter as British, even with its American backing. The 4th will be even more British with the Brit director coming into play.
Wasn’t there an issue in France regarding what defined a French film? I think it was a movie with Audrey Tatou. The entire film was “French,” save for its’ distributor, Warner Bros., and/or its’ financier.
Late in the day this response is, mmm, but the film you’re referring to is called Un Long Dimanche de Fiancailles/A Very Long Engagement. It’s an even glossier Amelie – the most expensive French film ever, etc. Ergo beaucoup de controversie..
Beautiful Badalamenti theme on the soundtrack – even if you never catch the flick, I recommend you buy the CD..!