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PORTRAIT gallery
BAFTANEWSAND
Alan Robinson Angela Spindler-Brown Bob Angell Sarah Clark Charles McDonald Charles Pattinson Christelle Randall
BAFTANEWSAND
CALLING ALL
MEMBERS FROM AMY MINYARD BAFTA Events And Membership Officer
Welcome back and I hope you all had a happy new year. I am delighted to be able to report that the number of requests for Academy membership - especially from younger tele- vision, film and new media practitioners - has continued to grow in the early weeks of the year.
And our first quarter Events and Screening pro- grammes have been attrac- tive and well
attended as we
have moved
through the vot-
ing process
leading to the
Orange British
Academy Film
Awards. (See
Nominations
Page 11)
To help me
provide added
value to membership throughout the year, Juliet McCulloch has joined the department and will focus
on building a state-of-the-art database. Please don’t hesi- tate to call or e-mail either of us if you have queries or suggestions.
Our main aim over the coming year is to add value to membership and we have recently been able to arrange for BAFTA members to receive substantially dis- counted rates at the Hotel Inter-Continental London on Hyde Park Corner, situated just five minutes walk from BAFTA’s Piccadilly headquar- ters. Discounted rates are also available on request from the May Fair Inter- Continental London and the Churchill Inter-Continental London at Portman Square.
We kicked off 2001 with a full events programme in January, from Funding the Feature to The Inaugural David Lean Lecture we have certainly seen some exciting speakers pass through BAFTA. And BAFTA members turned out in force to sup- port these events.
Finally, and I do not plan to end this bit on a negative note each month, there is an issue that I need to men- tion. Recently we have held many events at the Academy which have
been over-subscribed, and yet many members who have booked tickets do not turn up for the event or
phone to say they can no longer attend.
I am sure you will under- stand that this prevents other members from attend- ing the event who would like to do so. In future, please only book for events which you do plan on attending, and if something comes up to change your plans, please telephone to let us know. Many thanks for your co- operation in this matter.
2000 WRAP-UP
19 DECEMBER
NICHOLAS NICKLEBY
Many of you were treat-
ed to mulled wine
and a festive atmos- phere at this preview screen- ing of Company Television’s two-part adaptation Nicholas Nickleby. Director Stephen Whittaker, Producer Nicholas Brown and Writer Martyn Edward Hesford were on hand to talk to James Rampton after the screening, as well as taking questions from the audience.
JANUARY EVENTS
JANUARY 8
CAST AWAY
Tom Hanks joined us for
a preview screening of
his new film, which he has been working to get made for the past six years. This was a project which Hanks was passionate about. Staying at BAFTA to take questions in the theatre after
the screening he spoke in a very candid manner about his experiences making the film. He also entertained us with his selection of “Desert Island Discs” which included The Pirates Of Penzance, because “you’re gonna want a story,” Liz Phair, Bruce Springsteen and some recording of Eugene O’Neill monologues because he thought he would need the spoken word to keep himself company.
JANUARY 11
SHORTS ON SHOW
With AtomFilms buying
the drinks, a lively
audience enjoyed a screening of AtomFilms best
live-action, animation, and digital short films. We saw Angry Kid’s Queen’s Speech, from Aardman Animations as well as two other episodes of Angry Kid. Also screened were Steven Eastman’s I
JANUARY 18
SILENT NIGHT
This event gave members
the opportunity to see
some very rare silent films from Kevin
Brownlow’s personal archive. The Wind, Napoleon, and The Chess Player were screened and Kevin and Patrick Stanbury were at the Academy to talk about the restoration work carried out on short films, making it possible for a new generation to see these
films.
JANUARY 23
A TRIBUTE TO DESMOND WILCOX
Afew weeks
before he
died,
Desmond Wilcox
recorded a Masterclass for a BBC television training exercise.
In this Masterclass he dis- cussed his philosophy of documentary making and answered questions in his inimitable style from young producers on all aspects of the business from writing
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Make Things Happen, Lee Schulman’s Bath Time, Matt Wheeldon’s Blind Date, JJ Keith’s Holiday Romance and In God We Trust, direct- ed by Jason Reitman.