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Bafta Beyond Piccadilly
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BAFTA CYMRU
AFTA LA has announced Bthat the Tenth Annual
Britannia Award, recently renamed the Stanley Kubrick Britannia Award
for Excellence in Film, will be pre- sented to Steven Spielberg at a black tie gala dinner to be held on November 4 at the Century Plaza Hotel in Los Angeles. All BAFTA members are encouraged to make their reservations for what promises to be a very mem- orable evening.
Meanwhile, back in March, we welcomed many American and British Academy Award nominees to the Seventh Annual Tea Party at Loews Santa Monica Beach Hotel. Neither the hotel remodelling nor the road- works on Ocean Avenue could damp- en the spirits of the Tea Partygoers.
Among the nominees at the party were Kevin Spacey, Sam Mendes, Michael Caine, Pedro Almodovar, Mike Leigh, Antony Minghella, Paul Morrison, Kevin Macdonald, Om Puri, Conrad Hall, Alan Ball, Thora Birch, and Wes Bentley. BAFTA Chairman Tim Angel, BAFTA LA Chairman Arnold Schwartzman, AMPAS President Robert Rehme, and Consul-General Paul Dimond were all on hand to welcome the nearly 700 guests.
We’re proud to have honoured the talented professionals who had been nominated for our industry’s highest accolades. Over the next few months, many of the interviews from the day can be viewed on our website. We were also busy earlier that
month helping to organize the “Hollywood-Wales-Film” St. David’s Day dinner. The evening, produced by BAFTA LA’s Kevin Ula Christie, was jointly hosted by Sgrin, the Welsh Media and Film Agency; the Welsh Development Agency; the British Consulate; and the British Film Office in Los Angeles.
Recent screenings have includ- ed Gladiator, with a Q & A with BAFTA LA member and editor Pietro Scalia, Small Time Crooks, a Special Evening of Four of the Best of British TV Comedies, and, for the tenth consecutive year, the First Film Foundation’s Showcase of New Short Films, entitled New Directions 2000. www.baftala.org
BBC America invited British Academy East Coast mem- bers to join them and the United Nations Correspondents Association at the US premiere of the BAFTA-winning BBC drama Peacekeepers aka Warriors. This was followed by a panel discussion which included prominent New York jour- nalists and director Peter Kosminsky. Actor Mathew MacFadyen joined members from BAFTA, the BBC and the UN at a reception.
April also saw BAFTA East Coast sponsoring a reception for the First Film Foundation, as it has done for the past three years. BAFTA East Coast members find the annual screenings an excellent way to keep abreast of up-and-com- ing British talent, and a useful
opportunity to meet many of the filmmakers in person.
Early in May Michael Palin’s Hemingway Adventure aired over two nghts on PBS. A few weeks before the broadcast, Palin himself, author/actor and global traveller, was the guest at a BAFTA East Coast event in New York City. Gillian Rose, BAFTA East Coast Vice Chairman, TV, was the MC for the evening and the event, spon- sored by BBC Worldwide and PBS, was a huge success.
The first episode of the series was screened followed by a Q & A with Palin about the making of this series and his reflections on the television industry as a whole. BAFTA members were reminded of Palin’s comedic talent as the con- versation ranged back to his early days with the Monty Python team through the past three decades to present day.
His other great global adven- tures, Full Circle with Michael Palin, Around the World in 80 Days and Pole to Pole have done extremely well with the American viewers and critics. All three were shown on PBS. This latest series was produced by Palin’s London-based company, Prominent Television, for the BBC. After the Q & A, Michael Palin stayed for the reception and talked to BAFTA members and Trustees for quite some time, despite having to be up at the crack of dawn for an interview on the NBC breakfast show ■.
elebrities and stars from Cacross the Welsh Film
and Television industry were out in force to cele- brate at the 9th Annual
BAFTA Cymru Film & Television Awards, held at the Cardiff International Arena on April 30.
Some 28 Awards in bronze cel- ebrating Welsh talent in a wide range of categories were present- ed at the only major annual media awards ceremony held outside London by a galaxy of Welsh and UK celebs. These included Ioan Gruffudd, Matthew Rhys, Tim Vincent, Gwen Taylor and the First Secretary of the National Assembly, Rhodri Morgan.
Thankfully free of overrunning speeches, on-stage intruders and dresses held together by safety pins, this years’ ceremony was an efficient and friendly affair.
It kicked off with an explosive Techno Mozart number from Phantom of the Opera diva Shân Cothi accompanied by more than a 100 dancers in patriotic strip. Stifyn Parri the producer excelled in his arrangement of the night, which concluded with a perfor- mance of our national anthem Land of My Fathers from Bryn Terfel, Bonnie Tyler and and other singers. With a host of celebrity appearances and a 1,300-strong attendance, the Ceremony was the biggest and best yet, reflecting the emerging international strength
and talent of the Welsh film and TV industry.
The evening was a triumph for Fruit Salad’s drama about contem- porary youth and city culture, Human Traffic, which scooped a total of three awards from four nominations, including Best Drama, Best Director for Justin Kerrigan and Best Camera: Drama for David Bennett. Tair Chwaer - a long running series plotting the lives of three sisters living the working class Country music cul- ture of industrial Wales - also did extremely well, taking three awards, including Best Actor for Dewi Williams in the feature film special Cymer dy Siâr.
Other highlights included Best Actress for Oscar nominee Nia Roberts for her part in Lois, Best Animation for The Canterbury Tales to Penelope Middleboe and Best Music Programme for the Stereophonics Live at Morfa for Emyr Afan.
BAFTA Cymru’s Special Award went to Chris Lawrence, eminent film and video editor, or if you pre- fer chef de montage, for his out- standing lifetime’s contribution to the industry in Wales. ■
See page 10 for full photo- spread of the great occasion and a list of the deserving winners.
www.bafta-cymru.org.uk
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