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All In A Day’s Work
If there is any one person who really does work for twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week on behalf of the Academy (and at times several stalwarts do), it seems to be the deputy executive director, Amanda Berry. Ron Allison talked to her in the Academy’s satellite office at 199 Piccadilly.
When Amanda moved back to London from Scottish Television Enterprises in October 1998, it was to take over and build up BAFTA’s Events programme which had been initi- ated some two to three years earlier under the chairmanship of Eddie Mirzoeff. Little did she know!
It was just as well that in her years in television, particularly in programme pro- duction, she had learned many skills, not least how to work extremely hard and to lead a team by example. Changes at 195 meant that at the turn of that year Amanda was asked by then Chairman, Tim Angel, to add to her responsibilities a few other matters – not least, overseeing the Film and Television Awards.
For Amanda, that meant non-stop, hands-on, day-to-day involvement in
AMANDA BERRY’S
every aspect of the events – and in the case of the Film Awards, taking them out of the West End to the Business Design Centre at Islington. That, in turn, involved a huge logistical exercise which eventually resulted in a transfor- mation scene worthy of the most lavish- ly staged pantomime.
The time and energy this all took up was phenomenal and Amanda was not helped by an accident-prone spell which left her on crutches for a while and with a limp for even longer. These minor set- backs only made her the more unstop- pable. She also inspired those around her with her enthusiasm and with her twin visions for the BAFTAS – continually improving the Television Awards and so
seriously to rival the Oscars.
Earlier this year, the Film Awards
moved to the Odeon, Leicester Square where they attracted many top stars, huge crowds and, with their glitz and glamour, hundreds of column inches and impressive photo-spreads. With the deci- sion by the Council to hold next year’s event ahead of the Hollywood jamboree there are even more challenges to tackle. Just what Amanda likes!
She will make full use of all the new technologies, she will be driven by a determination to be satisfied with only the best and she will inspire and exhaust those working with her. She’ll also make them laugh a good deal because they’ll have fun all along the way.
Of course, the Film and Television Awards are only part of the annual pro-
gramme these days. Television Crafts, Children’s Programme and the Interactive Entertainment all have their place and make their own demands. It is here the team of Doreen, Donna, Lisa, Dan, Katie, Deborah and Kelly, comes into their own and with Diane running the Events, Amanda has a vast amount of talent and experience working with her.
They are now in far more spacious offices – air-conditioned too – at 199 and from there the energy and vitality pours out. Innovations, improvements, themes, good ideas, less good ideas – all with the aim of making BAFTA the best.
All this is a good way from the vil- lage in Yorkshire where Amanda retreats from time to time to be with her mother. Mind you, meet Anita Berry and you will certainly see where the energy comes from! ■
Best Book I Never Optioned
Harry Potter, the publishing phenomenon of our age and the series that brought children back to reading.
Best Quote
The most inspirational and motivating quote a film producer can draw upon is from Samuel Beckett; “No matter - try again, fail again, fail better”. ■
24 increasing the status of Film so they come
SEVEN
NORMA HEYMAN’ S
SIX OF THE BEST
Industry personalities hand out their very own BAFTAs
There is a noble tradition of skiv- ing off school in order to get your education at the movies. I didn’t know about that, though, when I played truant from the grammar school in Liverpool to sneak into the stalls of the cinemas and lose myself in the epic or love story of the day. And somehow French classes always lost out to the allure of the Continental at Wallasey, where a lunatic enthusiast offered us subtitled exotica to my unend- ing gratitude!
Best Producer
One of my producer heroes was Sam Spiegel. In a career that spanned a full half-century, his credits embrace films as wildly varied as The African Queen, On The Waterfront, The Bridge On The River Kwai, Betrayal and another of my land- mark films, Lawrence Of Arabia.
And all praise to the runner-up, the visionary and obsessive producer David
O. Selznick for stumping up his $5,000 bad language fine and saving us from “Frankly my dear, my indifference is boundless”.
Best Film
One of the first films to imprint itself on my tender mind was billed as “the most magnificent picture ever”. While Gone Wit h The Wind might be described by some as the greatest soap opera of cinema history, it’s impossible not to succumb to its sweeping flam- boyant melodrama and sexual challenge of its stars.
Runners-up:
Lawrence of Arabia - Spiegel was never more an inspiration than in his mad quest to put together a multi-million dollar film with pos- sibly the most unconventional hero ever to stand at the centre of an epic. And if that weren’t enough, it boasts one of the great moments in the movies when,
after what must be the longest entrance in film history, a speck on the desert hori- zon resolves itself into the gloriously smouldering Omar Sharif.
Jules Et Jim, because of Jeanne Moreau, the woman I fantasised about being - romantic, enigmatic, irresistible and with two devoted lovers at her beck and call.
Best Actor
The immortal Garbo, with runners-up Brando and Di Caprio.
Best Cinema
The Greco Roman amphitheatre at Taormina, where Mount Etna, the Ionian Sea and the new moon combine to make one of the most memorable of cinema- going experiences.
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Photos from top: Norma Heyman Greta Garbo; Katharine Hepburn and
Humphrey Bogart in The African Queen (Archive photos courtesy Kobal)