Page 7 - 19_Bafta ACADEMY_Silent Films_ok

the big picture
Six months in as BAFTA chair- man, the pleasure-pain princi- ple is making itself strongly felt. Because I now have to attend most BAFTA events, I’ve suddenly discovered how genuinely enjoy- able, interesting, and frequently educational they are. This is the pleasure! But on the other hand, there are many committees to attend, a lot of paperwork, and, of course, life’s normal thorny little problems to be sorted out.
Amongst the events, highlights have included our Bond Tribute evening. Making an introductory speech to four real-life James Bonds, Halle Berry, Shirley Bassey, etc. was amongst the more intim- idating moments of my chair- manship so far – but nevertheless the evening was a lot of fun. I’m always surprised at how much one learns on these occasions.
We had two other terrific trib- ute evenings – one to Spike Lee and one to Sir John Mills. Both were really informative as well as being a great pleasure.
I have also been travelling a fair amount and meeting mem- bers outside London. I went to a screening evening in Los Angeles and can report that BAFTA LA is absolutely booming.
Moving our Film Awards before the American Academy Awards has considerably enhanced the profile and interest in BAFTA in Hollywood, whilst fostering a bet- ter relationship between BAFTA UK and our Los Angeles chapter.
I have also been to Glasgow, which is doing well with a superb team and committee who are really working hard to enhance BAFTA Scotland. Amongst their
Michael Attwell, Chairman
major achievements are the New Talent Awards, which we hope will become an increasingly important date in the national cultural calendar.
We are also trying to encour- age a much closer relationship between all the branches includ- ing BAFTA North and BAFTA Cymru, and we have had several very good meetings so far to pro- mote this.
On the pain side, I suppose the biggest anxiety for me is the massive expenditure we’ve com- mitted ourselves to in relation to the building at 195 Piccadilly.
We are required under our lease to put a new roof on it this year. We await confirmation from our landlord as to the precise schedule, but expect roof works to take place this summer. That will mean closing the Academy for four months, so it seems sensi- ble to use the opportunity to refurbish the building more gener- ally at the same time.
The total cost will be £1.5 mil- lion – which we don’t, of course, have! To avoid saddling BAFTA with huge debt, we will be having a campaign of active fund-raising under the slogan Raising the Roof.
We are hoping to get endow- ments to name new seats in the Princess Anne Theatre, amongst many other ideas. So please, if approached, do be as generous as possible! After all, this is all designed to ensure BAFTA’s on- going stability and success.
We are now heading straight into the thick of juries and the Awards season. Fortunately, most of this is pleasure rather than pain. I reckon I’ll be coming up for air around June. Oh, just in time to see the start of the build- ing works...
5
PHOTO: RICHARD KENDAL