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The British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA), is a British organisation that hosts annual awards shows for film, television, children's film and television, and interactive media.

Introduction

BAFTA was founded in 1947 as The British Film Academy, by David Lean, Alexander Korda, Carol Reed, Charles Laughton and others. In 1958, the Academy merged with The Guild of Television Producers and Directors to form The Society of Film and Television, which eventually became The British Academy of Film and Television Arts in 1976.

BAFTA's main office is on Piccadilly in London, but it also has branches in Northern England, Scotland, Wales, New York City and Los Angeles.

The Academy's trophies are in the form of a theatrical mask designed by American sculptor Mitzi Cunliffe, which was commissioned by the Guild of Television Producers in 1955.

Since 1989, the Los Angeles branch, BAFTA/LA, holds its own awards ceremony each year, called the Britannia Awards.

Awards presented in London

Film

BAFTA's main film awards ceremony is known as the British Academy Film Awards, taking place since 2000 in the flagship Odeon cinema on Leicester Square. The ceremony used to take place in April or May, but from 2002 onwards it takes place in February in order to precede the Oscars. The awards are mostly open to all nationalities, though there is an award for best British film.

Only seven actors have been nominated for two performances (for different films) in the same category in the history of the ceremony: the first was Miranda Richardson, followed by Anthony Hopkins, Geoffrey Rush, Sean Penn, Scarlett Johansson, Kate Winslet and George Clooney. On most occasions the actor has won the award - the exceptions being Winslet and Clooney, who failed to win on either nomination.

Winners at the 2006 British Academy Film Awards included: Brokeback Mountain (best film); Wallace and Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit (best British film); Ang Lee (best direction); Reese Witherspoon (best actress); Philip Seymour Hoffman (best actor); De battre mon coeur s'est arrêté (best foreign language film), and (Lord) David Puttnam (BAFTA Fellowship).

See also:

Television

The British Academy Television Awards
usually take place in April or May, with craft awards having a separate ceremony slightly later in the year.

Among the 2002 winners were the office comedy The Office and its star Ricky Gervais; souped-up karaoke contest Pop Idol
; the long-running soap EastEnders; popular romantic comedy-drama Cold Feet; best actress Julie Walters and best actor Michael Gambon.

Julie Walters, Ricky Gervais and The Office were repeat winners at the 2003 awards in April 2004; other winners included Friday Night with Jonathan Ross, Little Britain, and, as best actor, Bill Nighy.

Little Britain triumphed again in the April 2005 ceremony, winning best comedy programme and best comedy performance for Matt Lucas and David Walliams. Channel 4's Sex Traffic was best drama, and its star Anamaria Marinca, best actress. Rhys Ifans won the best actor award, as Peter Cook in Not Only But Always.

Children's

The British Academy Children's Film and Television Awards were established in 1995, and are presented in November.

The 2002 winner of best feature film was Monsters, Inc., which beat nominees The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring, Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone and Stuart Little 2.

The 2003 winner was Whale Rider, with subsequent episodes of Harry Potter and The Lord of the Rings among the runners up.

In 2004 the boy wizard eventually stepped out of the shadows as Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban took the award, while the Tolkien saga lost yet again. TV winners in 2004 included Balamory and Dick and Dom in da Bungalow.

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