British Academy Film Awards 2017 Odds
The EE British Academy Film Awards 2017 will take place on Sunday 12 February, and nominations will be announced on Tuesday 10 January. Alongside the dates, organizers have revealed a few adjustments to the rules.
In the animated film section, previously limited to three nominations, the committee will have the option of extending the number to five. "Sometimes entrants don't submit their films because they know there's only three nominations, so we want to make sure there's as wider number of entrants as possible," BAFTA's head of awards Emma Baehr tells THR.
As for the documentary section, while BAFTA has seen five nominations each year dating back to 2012, this was at the discretion of the committee. For 2017, it has been set at five. The rise of SVOD and the growing struggle for international art house films to be given theatrical releases have also forced a response from BAFTA, whose qualifying rules require a film to have had a theatrical release on 10 screens for a least a week (with a lower threshold for documentaries and foreign language titles).
The 2017 BAFTA will mark the first time the event has been held in London’s iconic Royal Albert Hall since 1997, when the Film and Television Awards were given jointly at the same ceremony. The Film Awards have been held at the Royal Opera House, which is currently undergoing refurbishment, in the capital’s Covent Garden area for the last 10 years. Royal Albert Hall sits about three miles west on the northern edge of London’s South Kensington region.
Stephen Fry will be returning to host the 70th edition of the ceremony, making it the 12th time the UK’s resident renaissance man has presented the prestigious event. BAFTA will be using more than half of the Royal Albert Hall’s 5,272 seating capacity, which will see it increase its numbers by around 1,000 this year (Royal Opera House’s seating capacity sits at 2,256). A number of these extra seats will go to industry members and sponsor EE will be given the opportunity to run more competitions to give the wider public more access to the event this year. But whether it’s a permanent move is unclear. “We plan one year at a time,” said Brown, pointing out that the Cirque du Soleil will be at the Royal Albert Hall during awards season for the next few years and that the Royal Opera House was keen to have BAFTA back after the refurb.
The organization also announced some key rule changes. In the past, the animated film category was limited to three films. This year, the committee may opt to extend it to five potential nominees. The documentary section received similar rules. Although in the past five nominees have been allowed in the category, it was always a case-by-case basis. For 2017, the number of nominees in the category has been nailed down to five officially.
A film being entered in the Best Film category will no longer be required to automatically qualify for a craft category as well. And, lastly, films in the British Short Film and British Short Animation categories will all be released in theaters and on digital means after nominations have been announced.