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Bafta Beyond Piccadilly
FARFROMTHE
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FROM OVER THERE
BAFTA NORTH
n spite of the slower-paced Isummer season, BAFTA LA
kept up its screening sched- ule with Chicken Run, which included a Q & A with
animators Nick Park and Peter Lord, What Lies Beneath, co- starring Harrison Ford and Michelle Pfeiffer, and 42 Up, plus a Q & A with Michael Apted.
Saving Grace is at the begin- ning of August followed, two days later, by a special presenta- tion of In Love With Elizabeth, at which producer Beryl Vertue O.B.E. is scheduled to talk about the making of the programme.
Plans were going full-steam- ahead for the Garden Party on July 27 at the home of British Consul-General Paul Dimond and his wife Carolyn. On June 6, it was announced that the recipient of the BAFTA LA Scholarship was Jeremy Alsop, a British film stu- dent studying at UCLA. This scholarship would not be possi- ble without the generous support of members Michael Richards and Craig Ferguson, as well as the UCLA Foundation. Also in June, the Board and staff welcomed John Woodward, CEO of the British Film Council, and Steve Norris, chairman of the British Film Commission, as a reception held at the BAFTA LA offices.
Board member Hilary Mackendrick continues to pro-
duce the BAFTA LA videotape Archive project. Among the British luminaries “captured” to date are Sir John Mills and Ronald Neame. The production team includes interviewers Gavin Lambert and Anna Lee, editor Anne V. Coates, actor Basil Langton and director Guy Green.
Since January, BAFTA LA has continued to grow, welcoming 49 new members and 19 new Friends of the Academy. At its last board meeting, Tim Zinnemann was co-opted direc- tor and staff member Liz Empleton became Membership & Events Co-ordinator. ■
www.baftala.org
BAFTA East Coast had a very successful screen- ing of the new Kenneth Branagh’s film Love’s Labour’s Lost in June, thanks to our friends at Miramax. We are looking for- ward to our first joint screening with the British American Chamber of Commerce. Courtesy of Fine Line Features, this will be Saving Grace, direct- ed by Nigel Cole and starring Brenda Blethyn.
We are delighted to have Ms Blethyn as our guest for a Q&A after the film. She is no stranger to our New York-based
BAFTA chapter, having joined us last year for the screening of HBO’s RKO 281.
Other upcoming events include Paul Morrison’s Solomon and Gaenor, which is being dis- tributed by Sony Pictures Classics; and a forum on Television News, in conjunction with the Foreign Press Association. An assortment of additional panels, screenings, and get-togethers are in the works.
We are excited about the new date for the BAFTA Film Awards. Our members will no doubt be very busy attending all the appropriate screenings before the earlier voting dead- line. We would also like to offer an official “welcome “ to the new BAFTA Chairman, Simon Relph, and look forward to greeting him in New York in the near future.
BAFTA East Coast is always open to suggestions for screen- ings or seminars, receptions and panels from our colleagues in the UK, particularly when a British film or television series is due to launch here in the US. Please contact Executive Director Julie Ann Marshall at (212) 258-2651 or via e-mail. ■
baftany@earthlink.net.
iverpool’s first interna- Ltional writing festival,
WOW 2000, ran June 7-11, and proved a huge suc- cess. BAFTA North put on
five high profile events during the week bringing together writ- ers from across the country.
A particular hit was the Kodak Short Film Showcase. Following a competition organ- ised jointly by Kodak and BAFTA North for the best short made in the North of England, five short- listed films were shown at a spe- cial screening: The Forgotten Army, The Lesson, Boom Boom Clap, Mavis and the Mermaid and Better or Worse?.
Producer Sally Hibbin, cine- matographer Bruce McGowan and writer Jimmy McGovern were the judges who finally voted Better or Worse?, written and directed by Jocelyn Cammack, as the winner. An enthusiastic audience was then treated to a question-and- answer session with the panel.
Director Stephen Frears (Dangerous Liaisons, High Fidelity), who has just finished shooting a McGovern-scripted film in Liverpool, took time out to take part in a discussion about writing and film-making. Roger Shannon, Norma Heyman and writer Neville Smith joined
him on the panel before a rare screening of Gumshoe, which Frears and Smith made in 1971. The evening was held as a trib- ute to the late Bill Dean who had a starring role in Gumshoe as well as in the short The Forgotten Army, written and directed by Liverpool’s Eric Christiansen, which was also screened.
Other events included a light-hearted evening with Frank Cottrell Boyce (Hilar y & Jackie, Brookside) and Alex Cox (Sid & Nancy, Repo Man), in a discus- sion again chaired by Roger Shannon, head of production, Film Council; and a discussion chaired by Paul Marquess, series producer on Brookside, looking at the cultural issues facing writers.
The festival closed with a charity gala screening of Going Off Big Time, preceded by the Kodak winning short Bet t er or Worse?, in aid of the Liverpool- based Weston Spirit. The black-tie event was a sell-out and was attended by many local celebrities and digni- taries. Neil Fitzmaurice, who wrote and starred in the film, and producer Ian Brady were delighted with the audience’s enthusiastic response.
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