The UK Cinema Association has welcomed today’s confirmation from BAFTA that it will in future only consider those titles receiving ‘meaningful’ cinema releases for its prestigious Film Awards.
The statement, which follows lengthy discussion with the Association and individual members, followir the award of Best Film to Roma last year, a decision which many cinema operators felt overlooked the limited availability of that film to cinema audiences.
It makes clear that while BAFTA does not intend to change currently eligibility rules – which require film to have been shown on 10 commercial screens in the UK for at least seven days – it will scrutinise nominated films more closely in this regard, as well as encouraging all films to share box office figures to prove how many people saw each film on the big screen.
Furthermore, the statement here confirms that the BAFTA Film Committee will look to ensure that each film is distributed across a wide range of geographical areas.
In response to today’s announcement, the Association issued the following statement:
“The UK Cinema Association welcomes today’s statement from BAFTA reaffirming the central importance of the cinema experience to their Film Awards, not least the desire that as many people as possible are able to see nominated films on the big screen. We also welcome the commitment from BAFTA that it will more robustly police compliance with its current eligibility criteria in order to ensure that the Awards are not merely used as a marketing channel for certain titles.
We look forward to continuing our dialogue on these issues.”