British Academy of Film and Television Arts

The British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA), is a British organisation that hosts annual awards shows for film, television, children's film and television, and interactive media.

Introduction

BAFTA was founded in 1947 as The British Film Academy, by David Lean, Alexander Korda, Carol Reed, Charles Laughton, Roger Manvell and others. 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 main office is on Piccadilly in London, but it also has branches in Northern England, Scotland, Wales, New York City and Los Angeles.

The Academy's trophies 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.

Awards presented in London

Film

BAFTA's main film awards ceremony is known as the British Academy Film Awards, in 2007 coming from the Royal Opera House, having taken place since 2000 in the flagship Odeon cinema on Leicester Square. The ceremony used to take place in April or May, but from 2002 onwards it takes 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 British Director, Producer or Writer for their first feature film.

35 actors have been nominated for two or three performances (for different films, in leading or supporting) in the same category in the history of the ceremony: Miranda Richardson, Anthony Hopkins, Geoffrey Rush, Al Pacino, Robert Redford, Michael Caine, Billie Whitelaw, Walter Matthau, Elliott Gould, Goldie Hawn, George C. Scott, Marlon Brando, Donald Sutherland, Richard Burton, Jack Lemmon, Bibi Andersson, Peter Sellers, Shirley MacLaine, Katharine Ross, Lee Marvin, Richard Attenborough, Jack Nicholson, Gene Hackman, Marcello Mastroianni, Rachel Roberts, Katharine Hepburn, Stéphane Audran, Dustin Hoffman, Jodie Foster, Sean Penn, Scarlett Johansson, Kate Winslet, Mia Farrow, Barbra Streisand and George Clooney.

See also:

• BAFTA Award for Best Film
• BAFTA Award for Best Direction
• BAFTA Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role
• BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role
• BAFTA Award for Best Actor in a Supporting Role
• BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Supporting Role
• BAFTA Award for Best Film Not in the English Language
• BAFTA Award for Best British Film

Television

Main article: 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 1991 awards were controversial when Prime Suspect beat GBH to win the Best Drama Serial award. In what became known as "Baftagate", four of the jurors publicly declared that they had voted for GBH and demanded to see the votes, but these had been destroyed.^{[citation needed]}

Among the 2002 winners were the office comedy The Office and its star Ricky Gervais; talent contest Pop Idol; the long-running soap EastEnders; popular romantic comedy-drama Cold Feet; best actress Julie Walters and best actor Michael Gambon.

Julie Walters, Ricky Gervais and The Office were repeat winners at the 2003 awards in April 2004; other winners included Friday Night with Jonathan Ross, Little Britain, and, as best actor, Bill Nighy.

Little Britain triumphed again in the April 2005 ceremony, winning best comedy programme and best comedy performance for Matt Lucas and David Walliams. Channel 4's Sex Traffic was best drama, and its star Anamaria Marinca, best actress. Rhys Ifans won the best actor award, as Peter Cook in Not Only But Always.

Children's

The British Academy Children's Film and Television Awards were established in 1995, and are presented in November.

The 2002 winner of best feature film was Monsters, Inc., which beat nominees The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring, Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone and Stuart Little 2.

The 2003 winner was Whale Rider, with subsequent episodes of Harry Potter and The Lord of the Rings among the runners up.

In 2004 the boy wizard eventually stepped out of the shadows as Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban took the award, while the Tolkien saga lost yet again. TV winners in 2004 included Balamory and Dick and Dom in da Bungalow.

Video Games

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,^[1] 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.

In 2006 BAFTA announced their decision "to give video games equal status with film and television",^[2] and ensured that the ceremony held at London's Camden Roundhouse on October 5th was televised for first time.^[3]

Rising Star Award

Main article: Rising Star Award, BAFTA

This award is given on the same day as the BAFTA Film Awards. This award is to acknowledge new talents in the acting industry whether for film, television or both. The nominees are chosen by BAFTA juries regardless of the nominee's gender and nationality. The winner, however is chosen by the public. This award is to dedicate Mary Selway who was a renowned casting director and helped many new actors and actresses to fame and recognition.

Awards presented in Los Angeles

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 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)

The 2005 recipients were:

• Tom Cruise - (The Stanley Kubrick Britannia Award for Excellence in Film)
• Dame Elizabeth Taylor - (The Britannia Award for Artistic Excellence in International Entertainment)
• Mike Newell - (The John Schlesinger Britannia Award for Artistic Excellence in Directing)
• Ronald Neame - (The Cunard Britannia Award for Lifetime Contributions to International Film)

Previous recipients of the Britannia Awards have included 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.

Scotland and Wales

BAFTA Scotland first held an award ceremony for Scottish television and film in 1997. From 1998 to 2002, BAFTA Scotland held an award ceremony focusing on new talent; the organisation resumed giving annual awards in 2005.

BAFTA Cymru has recognised creative work in television and film in Wales with an annual award since 1991.

Notes

1. ^ Multimedia's best in Bafta battle - BBC News announces BAFTA Interactive Entertainment Award split; 1st December 2003.
2. ^ Video Games Awards become BAFTA's 'third arm' - BAFTA official press release (pdf).
3. ^ BAFTA Announces E4 / Channel 4 Coverage For The British Academy Video Games Awards - Games Industry Magazine.

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