And the winner is...the return of the Scottish Bafta awards

SCOTLAND’S film and television industry is to get its own “Oscars” back.

Bafta in Scotland – the Scottish wing of the British Academy of Film and Television Arts – is once again to give out its annual awards, after an absence of two years.

Now re-named the British Academy Scotland Awards, the ceremony for Scottish talent in movies, television and the gaming industry will be held in Glasgow in November.

Winners will be announced from 15 categories – including best actor and actress in both television and movies, best feature film and best television drama.

Nominations will be announced in October, but recent Scottish films such as Peter Mullan’s Neds, Kevin Macdonald’s The Eagle, David Mackenzie’s Perfect Sense and Sylvain Chomet’s The Illusionist are likely to be in the running for awards.

Television shows such as David Tennant’s Single Father, Taggart, River City, Limmy, The Scheme and Case Histories could also be shortlisted.

Three “special contribution” awards will be given on the night of the gala “red carpet” affair, which will be held on November 13 at the Radisson Hotel. There will also be an award for live television coverage of an event, with the Pope’s visit to Scotland, the Scottish Parliament and T in the Park all probable contenders.

Jude Maclaverty, the director of Bafta in Scotland, said the break from staging the awards ceremony had not been financially driven but was to give time for an internal re-organisation of the awards to take place. Because of the break in awards ceremonies, this year’s event will honour programmes, games and films from the last two years. Ms Maclaverty said this year’s event, which she hopes will be “glittering”, will signal the return of an annual ceremony. The event will not be televised, however. Now the criteria and categories of all Bafta awards, not only in the UK but in the US, are uniform, she added.

Ms Maclaverty said: “We are delighted to be staging the awards again this year, which will shine a spotlight on the fantastic creative and technical talent which exists in Scotland. The quality and diversity of the work is a credit to the industry. The awards did not happen last year, and a lot of people said the decision was about money, but it was not.
“We had to get everything right with Bafta in the UK, in New York and Los Angeles, so that we are all the same – the same criteria and categories – and we didn’t want to go ahead last year and not have it right.
“We are opening it up to everything in the last two years. We hope it is a glittering event. I know it was always an exciting event to go to and people from all the industries involved enjoyed it.”

Nominations for this year’s awards will be announced on October 17. The categories are: children’s programme, television drama, entertainment show, live event coverage, factual series, current affairs, single documentary, game, actor and actress for television and film, writer, director, animation, short film and feature film.

The Scottish film industry received a boost this week with news the country’s first film studio could open by the end of the year. Talks are at an advanced stage for a £3 million expansion of the Film City Glasgow project, which helped produce movies such as Red Road, Hallam Foe and Neds.

Source: Herald Scotland