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ACHIEVEMENT: BRITANNIA AWARDS
BUDDING TALENT
Washington
Prep students
visit New York
Film Academy
with BAFTA/LA
volunteers.
Locally Engaged New leadership
changing awards ceremony as well
as pushing org toward widening
outreach programs By Shalini Dore
THIS YEAR’S BRITANNIA AWARDS show
gets a new face thanks to the production
efforts of Done and Dusted,
host Jack Whitehall and a new outlet,
Pop TV. But there are also a couple of
fresh faces at the top of BAFTA/LA, the
org that’s behind the awards: incoming
CEO Chantal Rickards and Kieran Breen,
Tipsheet
WHAT:
2015 BAFTA/
LA Britannia
Awards
WHEN:
Oct. 30
WHERE:
Beverly
Hilton
WEB:
bafta.org/
los-angeles
chairman of the board of
directors.
“One of the great things
that the Britannias have
always been able to bring
is top-level talent,” Breen
says. “This year you can tell
from the honorees (Orlando
Bloom , Meryl Streep , Harrison
Ford , Sam Mendes ,
James Corden and Amy
Schumer ) that once again we’ve a stellar
lineup. But this year we’re also going to
bring a more polished, progressive, sort of
cool Britannia thing that (Done and Dusted)
do so well.”
Throughout the year, BAFTA/LA hosts
a series of programs to help find the next
generation of filmmakers. “It starts with
grassroots work like screenings in parks
with families, work with film schools to
find young talent,” chief operating officer
Matthew Wiseman says. These include
scholarships, mentorships, student film
competitions and professional programs
like master classes.
For the past four years, BAFTA/LA has
been at Washington Prep High School in
the Westmont area of Los Angeles. “It’s
in a tough part of town,” Rickards says.
“We put in a lot of manhours, going down
there to help with their education programming.
We also open those children’s
eyes to the opportunities of all the other
jobs in the industry that they can get. ”
The Britannias are more than a way to
honor people in showbiz, they also help
BAFTA/LA fundraise for its various efforts
from industry screenings to inner-city
philanthropy and student mentoring and
competitions.
“I think it’s important that we try and
pay it back in some small way to the community
here that has welcomed us,” Breen
says. “And it also helps this British organization
be relevant in this town.”
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2
3
4
Honoree
Quartet
Trans-Atlantic mix
› Orlando Bloom (1)
Humanitarian
Award
› James Corden (2)
British Artist of
the Year
› Harrison Ford (3)
Albert R. Broccoli
Award for Worldwide
Contribution
› Meryl Streep (4)
Stanley Kubrick
Excellence in Film
STEPPING UP THE
LAUGH-O-METER
Shenanigans surely in store with Schumer
Expect Chaplin
Award recipient
Amy Schumer
to embrace the
cheeky humor —
and sometimes
raunchy speeches
— that peppers the
Britannias .
“Brits have
successfully pushed
the boundaries of
comedy for many
years, so fittingly
the recipients of
the Chaplin Award
have pushed the
boundaries of what
can happen at an
award show,” says
Matthew Wiseman,
COO of BAFTA/LA.
Sacha Baron
Cohen’s 2013 homage
to Chaplin imitated
the icon’s walk
with a cane before
he stumbled and
pushed offstage an
old woman who had
presented him with
the cane. The gasps
turned to laughs
when the audience
realized that she was
really a stunt woman.
“Chaplin himself
was a performer
known for classic
moments of surprise,
and our Britannia
honorees over the
years have certainly
channeled that same
spirit onstage,”
Wi
sa s.
BAFTA/LA board
chairman Kieran
Breen says, “Amy
Schumer’s humor
is known to light up
the room, and even
though she it seems
like she arrived on
the scene in the last
few years, she’s really
broken through in a
huge way. Excellence
is not the prerogative
of the older
generation.”
Adds the org’s CEO
Chantal Rickards:
“And the Brits love
her. She came and
accepted an award in
the U.K. and again the
acceptance speech
was funny, cheeky,
irreverent. She had
the Brits eating out
of her hands. So
she’s sort of really
hit home for us. And
I think it’s a speech
that we’ll all be sitting
there going, ‘OK, here
we go, lock in for the
ride.’ ”
Whatever occurs at
this year’s ceremony,
Mike Berkowitz,
exec producer of
“Amy Schumer Live
at the Apollo,” says
she will continue
to showcase her
unfiltered honesty.
“She is just, at her
core, a real human
being and when she
h thi t
h ’
i ”
i
l s
BLOOM: ROB LATOUR/VARIETY/REX SHUTTERSTOCK; CORDEN: HENRY LAMB/PHOTOWIRE/BEIMAGE/REX SHUTTERSTOCK; FORD: BEIMAGES/REX SHUTTERSTOCK; STREEP: JIM SMEAL/BEI/REX SHUTTERSTOCK
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