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the big picture
Having come out of the autumn and winter Awards season, attention now turns to our building. The project we are about to undertake at 195 Piccadilly is a huge but essential one for the Academy.
The size of the project has made us realise that the infrastruc- ture of the building’s internal serv- ices must also be planned today, so that modernisation of services coincides with modernisation of the building’s appearance.
However, we are still on course to complete the David Lean Room refurbishment by the end of the summer and we look for- ward to introducing the new-look first floor space to our members and clients in the autumn.
Although the start date for the refurbishment work this year has not yet been set in stone, we currently anticipate that our annual closure to members will be from July 21 to August 31. Please keep an eye on our weekly email bulletins for confir- mation of these dates.
Many of you will have used our online facilities for voting in this year’s Film Awards. It was the first year in which we offered this facility and, although there are many areas of potential improve- ment with the system, we were very pleased with the accuracy of results and the efficiency of the online voting procedure.
The Film Committee have instructed us to make improve- ments to the online voting sys- tem and this exercise has already begun. In 2004, due to the very tight timelines imposed on us by our enforced change of date for the Film Awards, all voting will be online.
Plans at this stage include a telephone support service and terminals in 195 for those who cannot access the internet elsewhere. The Television Committee is exploring the best way of introducing online voting and we shall keep you posted on its decisions.
Kevin Price, Chief Operating Officer
Since our last edition of ACADEMY, we have staged no less than three Awards Ceremonies. The British Academy Television Awards sponsored by Radio Times was, we believe, a fantastic evening for television with anoth- er great party – celebrating a diverse cross-section of excel- lence in British TV.
Huge thanks go to Radio Times, in this their fifth year of sponsoring the TV Awards. The Craft Awards were our biggest yet, and were held at The Dorchester for the first time. This was another very special evening for the Academy.
BAFTA Cymru have also staged their best ever Film, Television and New Media Awards. These were held at the Cardiff International Arena, where Huw Edwards proved an exceptional host in his second year fronting BAFTA Cymru’s Awards. This show really is going from strength to strength.
A very big ‘well done’ must go to Committee Chairs Dianne Nelmes, Hilary Bevan Jones and Bryn Roberts, as well as to a great many of our staff, particularly Donna Bell, Lisa Prime, Geraint Evans, Kelly Smith, Clare Brown
and Sarah Howells for these exceptional events. Thanks also go to all our Craft and BAFTA Cymru Awards sponsors, whose continuing support is vital to the success of these events.
Turning to staff changes, at the end of April we said farewell to Sarah Howells. Sarah has man- aged the BAFTA Cymru office for the past five years and we wish her every success in her new posi- tion with Sgrîn. We welcome Simon Farley as BAFTA’s new Head of Development and Corporate Relations and Tim Dobbs who is supporting my office.
And finally, a reminder that we are in Council Elections sea- son. We would encourage any member who believes they have a positive contribution to make to the future of the Academy to stand. BAFTA thrives on evolution and many of those members who are to lead the Academy in the first part of the twenty-first century have yet to come forward. The deadline for returning forms by those who wish to stand for elec- tion is June 13.
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