Britain to expand scope of cooperation with China's film market

Farewell My Concubine, directed by Chen Kaige and starring Leslie Cheung, won the best film award in the foreign language category of British Academy Film Awards in 1993. [Photo/Agencies]

For example, BAFTA lacked the funds and was only broadcast in the UK before Berry, a former TV producer, took up the academy job.

But she isn't satisfied with the British film awards being seen by many moviegoers around the world as a curtain raiser to the Oscars.

"It's much shorter," Berry says jokingly when referring to the difference between the two award ceremonies.

"When the Oscars nominate as many as 10 films for the best pictures award, we decide not to do that. Instead, we set an independent category for outstanding British films whose winners can also compete for the best film award," she adds.

Berry cites history, talent and the "British sense of humor" as elements that make the UK film industry different from the rest of the world. That probably also explains why the criteria for BAFTA is different from Hollywood.

In recent years, though some best film award winners at BAFTA also received top honors at the Oscars, there have been exceptions. For example, BAFTA winner The Queen (2006), which is a "very British" film, according to Berry, didn't convince the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to name it the best film.

"We don't want to be a carbon copy (of the Oscars) though it's an international ceremony," she says, adding that the close ties between Hollywood and British cinema often make it difficult for people not to view the two events with similar expectations.

"People may consider many films to be American, but many people behind the films are actually British and they are made in the UK."

Berry also says she hopes there would be cinematic coproductions between China and the UK, and that people from the two countries have been working together to find stories.

"The booming Chinese film market gives opportunities to British filmmakers to reach a much larger audience."

Chinese director Chen Kaige's Farewell My Concubine won the best film award in the foreign language category at the 1993 BAFTA ceremony. Zhang Yimou's To Live won the same award a year later. But in recent times, Chinese faces haven't been seen among nominees at the same awards.

It would be wonderful if Chinese scholars studying in the UK or British scholars studying in China are recognized by BAFTA, says Berry.

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