{"id":14293,"date":"2012-02-09T03:48:20","date_gmt":"2012-02-09T03:48:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.filmdetail.com\/?p=14293"},"modified":"2012-02-11T22:09:05","modified_gmt":"2012-02-11T22:09:05","slug":"when-bafta-got-it-right","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.filmdetail.com\/2012\/02\/09\/when-bafta-got-it-right\/","title":{"rendered":"When BAFTA Got It Right"},"content":{"rendered":"
There were rumblings of discontent when the BAFTA nominations were announced but let’s celebrate the times when the voters got it spot on.<\/p>\n Before we do this though we should have a moment of silence for:<\/p>\n On Sunday, the Royal Opera House in Covent Garden will play host to some of the world’s A-list film talent, including Brad Pitt, Martin Scorsese and George Clooney.<\/p>\n It wasn’t always the case.<\/p>\n Growing up watching the awards in the UK could be an odd affair as many of my childhood memories are of BAFTAs being won and the recipient not actually being there.<\/p>\n Until the early 2000s it was held after<\/em> the Oscars, which frequently meant that A-list talent didn’t turn up as they saw the Academy Awards as the end of awards season.<\/p>\n You could almost hear the agents in LA say to their clients: “why fly all the way to London to be pipped by a Brit?”<\/p>\n But the UK and US have always had a strangely symbiotic relationship when it comes to films – many American productions film over here and utilise British studios and crews (e.g. The Dark Knight, Harry Potter).<\/p>\n The career of Stanley Kubrick almost embodies this duality – he so resented studio interference on Spartacus (1960) that he came to film every one of his subsequent productions in England, utilising our crews to create his extraordinary visions.<\/p>\n At the same time members of the Academy have always had a sweet tooth for English period fare (e.g. Chariots of Fire) and no-one has exploited this more than Harvey Weinstein, both in his days at Miramax and last year with The King’s Speech.<\/p>\n More generally, it is very rare to find a Best Picture winner that isn’t a period film, so the Academy’s tastes naturally align with the British addiction to period costume dramas.<\/p>\n But whilst BAFTA has suffered in the past from a ‘vote-for-their-own’ syndrome, they have also pulled out some corkers.<\/p>\n So, let us salute the worthier winners of the mask <\/a>designed by Mitzi Cunliffe.<\/p>\n BEST PICTURE<\/strong><\/p>\n Dr. Strangelove<\/a><\/strong> (1964): In the year that the Academy gave Best Picture to My Fair Lady<\/a>, the members of BAFTA went with Kubrick’s Cold War masterpiece. Ironically, the British set musical was filmed entirely on sound stages in Los Angeles, whilst the War Room in Washington was recreated at Shepperton Studios in England.<\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n
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