The British Academy of Film and Television Arts (aka BAFTA) has made an interesting change to its nomination procedures.
In past year, all films that opened in the UK in a given year were eligible for that year’s BAFTA awards. For this year’s awards, they’re doing things differently: films can only be considered if they’re entered into consideration by a film’s producer or distributor, or by a BAFTA member. The idea is to bring a little focus to the overwhelming year-end rush of screenings.
I’m looking forward to seeing how this plays out. As paradoxical as it might sound, this has the potential to broaden the range of films that are considered. That is, films that were going to get studio backing are going to get it anyway–but if a studio wasn’t planning on backing a film for awards consideration, and a BAFTA member ends up adding that film, it will signal there’s more member interest in it than the studio thought, which in turn might encourage the studio to schedule screenings and send out DVDs.
I’ve just gone and added Thirteen Conversations About One Thing into consideration — I gather it opened in the US a few years ago, but it’s just opening in the UK now. It’s a remarkably good movie, and it definitely deserves consideration. It’s entirely possible that the distributor would have entered it anyway, but of course there’s no harm in a BAFTA member entering it first.
A list of films that have already been entered into eligibility can be found at BAFTA’s website. It’s a small list at the moment, since the year is only half over, and the bulk of serious contenders probably won’t start coming out until the fall.