An awful lot of political considerations come into play over awards of any kind. From the Oscars to the Nobel Prize, many of us deemed "the ordinary public" would like to believe that such accolades relate to excellence, and hang onto a romantic view in which merit and justice bear some relation to each other.
But such views are getting harder and harder to hold.
A quick look at the BAFTA 2010 nominations for Outstanding British Film shows two films I actually wanted to watch, one I thought I should watch because I'd seen a clip on Jonathan Ross, and two I thought best to avoid at all cost, if for utterly different reasons.
For my money, Tamara Drewe was one of the best British films to come out in 2010. Lively performances, evocative camera-work and a great screenplay make it a charming picture, faithful - in clever and surprising ways - to the Posy Simmons graphic novel from which it came.
However, the great and good of BAFTA know more than I. Tamara Drewe might have been a very good movie, but the category is Outstanding British Film, which implies that the picture must have a little something more about it to gain such a heavyweight award.
All these nominated films do have "something about them" - it's true: most took healthy returns at the box-office when they opened, at least compared to their less-nominated peers, and most especially when they opened in the US. (Sources: IMDB and The Numbers.)
I'm no cynic.
It's important to keep the film industry going in Britain, so The Academy has to reward success. But it does highlight how those films which have achieved better box-office may get pushed to the top of the awards list.
In the end, unless a picture is truly newsworthy - like this year's Monsters, supposedly made for less than a million dollars, and on a single laptop - those films with the best marketing can't help getting the most attention from the judges. The current system works best for those films with the right mix of quality, marketing and box-office.
There's always an exception, of course. Some nominations are given to films that seem worthy, often for political (small 'p') or Political (big 'P') reasons, whatever the relative merit of the nominees. In the BAFTA world-view this appears to happen because the film concerns a subject so abnormally dull that the rest of the world, outside its native land, could not possibly have the slightest interest in it; or because it addresses a theme of political correctness that's important pro-tem.
Of course, sci-fi pix with romping special effects and huge marketing budgets still - inexplicably perhaps - make it into the Best Film category, if only because they employ everyone in the industry. But this year, the sci-fi boys have their work cut out, because they're up against interesting films of real quality.
Everyone complains, rightly, about the state of the film industry, and bemoans its fate and future.Yet good-quality films still will out. The dark, beautiful Biutiful, featuring a haunting and elegiac performance from 2008 Oscar-winner Javier Bardem as a man struggling to put in order his complex personal, psychic and business affairs before he dies, has already gained enormous prestige - not only as a film Not in the English Language, but for Bardem as a candidate for Best Actor.... and it hasn't even been released in the UK or the US yet.
And films like Tamara Drewe, which pulled in an abysmal $18,604 during its first US weekend and hasn't gained a single BAFTA nomination,* will sometimes have the last laugh. My prediction is that this picture has a great future as a family favorite and will make everyone involved with it - from its perennially excellent director, Stephen Frears, to all of its adorable cast, to its screenwriter Moira Buffini - very proud, and, hopefully ever more successful. Over time, since its autumn release, it's done very nicely, thank you, and there's every reason to suspect that we may be celebrating its excellence for many years to come.
* Gemma Arterton has been nominated for the Orange Rising Star Award, but this is voted on by the public, and is not awarded by the academy.
Alex Brunel is an American writer/researcher based in Stratford upon Avon, England. As well as living an exceptionally interesting life, she writes and reviews for anyone who will pay her quite a few who don't.
She's currently working on an adaptation-for-TV of Christine Richard's novel, "Whitewalls," set in the Scottish Borders.
You can see a collection of Alex's short stories under her pen name Riveralex - online - at Storywrite
http://storywrite.com/riveralex
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