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nations and regions
new york, ny
When BAFTA East Coast was created we never realised that in the fast changing world of film and television, New York and the East Coast would become so vital,
writes Gillian Rose.
“New York is now acknowledged as the capital of the independent film industry”
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Photos l-r: Cameron Diaz and Leonardo DiCaprio in Gangs Of New York; Jennifer Saunders and Joanna Lumley in Absolutely Fabulous; Dom Joly of Trigger Happy TV; Peace Out; Manhattan from the East River; Judi Dench and Geoffrey Palmer in As Time Goes By
Back in the mid-1990s, most In London, it is television that to think that this was for services
brings people together. What was on last night is more of a water- cooler topic than what has just opened at the local cinema. In New York it is the opposite. People love to discuss movies and nowhere is this more obvious than within BAFTA East Coast’s membership.
At this time of year, we are revving-up for the intense pre- Oscar and BAFTA countdown with a staggering number of screenings. We also anticipate the welcome packages of tapes that start arriving through the mail box later in the year.
Cost effective
Ask a voting BAFTA member what the biggest perk is of being part of this organiza- tion and they may say that it is those deliveries of screeners that arrive week after week during Oscar ‘for your consideration’ season. To view Harry Potter, Monsters Inc., In The Bedroom etc. at home, as we did last year, is a real treat and for the studios, a cost-effective and efficient marketing ploy.
This autumn will be busy, thanks to our tireless Vice Chairman of Film, Freddie Hancock. (Freddie recently received the MBE. We would like
of the studios were on the
West Coast and we feared the East Coast chapter would be a presence in the film world, yet not that important. But this has changed and New York is now acknowledged as the capital of the independent film industry. In television it was a different story.
The documentary tradition flour- ished on the Eastern sea board, dominated by PBS, Discovery and A&E Networks. Today there are even more opportunities. So seven years on, if asked how we feel about being BAFTA East Coast, we feel pretty good about the situa- tion. New York is a magnet, a draw, and an increasingly important cen- tre for the British.
As our ambitions grew, so did our list of Trustees and Board of Directors. They include most of the main movers and shakers in the industry. We continue to have our headquarters in Don Taffner’s beautiful building on West 56th Street. Don is a Trustee and has been a supporter of this chapter from the start.
We don’t have our own screening facilities but move around the city, venues dictated by.events. It seems to work: BAFTA members don’t mind criss-cross- ing Manhattan in search of a good screening.
to BAFTA but appreciate that it could have been for other rea- sons!) The season will end with our annual Christmas party hosted by HM Consul General, Tom Harris.
For many years, the New York-based stalwarts of inde- pendent film were Sony Pictures Classics and Miramax Films. It was good news to hear at the end of last year that MGM had agreed to move United Artists back to New York. Under the leadership of Bingham Ray, one of our Trustees, they plan to con- tinue making specialised inde- pendent movies, aiming to release about a dozen a year.
The New York Times recently reported that there are two trends reshaping the landscape of Hollywood filmmaking: one is the exodus of much of the shooting from LA to Toronto or Prague. “The other trend has been the shift of much of the studios specialty film operations to New York.”
Most executives agree that New York is on the verge of a growth spurt. BAFTA Trustee Tom Ortenberg, President of Lion’s Gate Releasing, told us that he thinks the independent film scene is poised for growth. “There are always cycles of expansion and consolidation and