Stephen Fry (Creative Commons)
Britannia Awards Highlights The Growing Importance Of BAFTA LA
By: Ken Van der Meeren, Neon Tommy
November 5, 2010


Popular comedian and actor Stephen Fry hosted the 2010 Britannia Awards Thursday night in Los Angeles, an event that honors those who have shaped and enhanced the film industry over the last year.

The winners of the 2010 awards were announced beforehand:
Jeff Bridges, Stanley Kubrick Britannia Award for Excellence In Film

Christopher Nolan, John Schlesigner Britannia Award for Excellence in Directing
Scott Free Productions, Britannia Award for Worldwide Contributions to Filmed Entertainment
Michael Sheen, Britannia Award for British Artists of the Year
Betty White, Charlie Chaplin Britannia Award for Excellence In Comedy

This year’s guests included a number of high profile Hollywood luminaries and global icons: Olivia Wilde, Betty White, Jane Lynch, Jeff Bridges, Robert Knepper, Vinnie Jones, Nigel Lythgoe, Marion Cotillard, Kevin Spacey and Michael Sheen.
BAFTA/LA, the British Academy of Film and Television Arts in LA, runs the awards show annually with the purpose of promoting Britain’s place in Hollywood and solidifying the Anglo-American connection.

The importance of BAFTA to the UK film industry has grown tremendously in the last few months with the closure of the UK Film Council. Most of the UK government and lottery funds are handed over directly to BAFTA now.

The UK Film Council fell victim to British budget cuts in August. Although it is claimed the council was lavish, costing 25 million pounds a year, it did have a relatively good track record in helping to boost the number of British American co-productions.

Since the council was created by the Labour government of 2010, there have been many British American co-productions, i.e. in 2008 the highest grossing movie in the U.S. was Warner Bros. "Dark Knight," which was partly filmed at Pinewood Studios, near London.

While on the other side of the Atlantic, the UK’s top grossing movie of 2008 was Universal’s "Mama Mia." BAFTA organizations across the world are now tasked with taking a greater amount of responsibility for promoting British film and talent.
Neil Stiles heads BAFTA’s office in LA and is also the president of Reed Business and Variety.

Stiles envisions that BAFTA will evolve from local affiliates to one global organization with offices in each country. He explained that American academies will always be American, French will be French, but with BAFTA, "we have the opportunity to build the only (truly) world academy for film and television arts."

Soon BAFTA/LA members will have global BAFTA access, where each can use the facilities and resources of those BAFTA organizations in other countries.

Stiles’ BAFTA is running a grassroots scheme to promote British and global films in LA, i.e. by showing films in parks in inner city areas and offering scholarships to university students.
The next large scale and significant BAFTA event will be "Brit Week," held in April.