Christopher Young, the award-winning Scottish film producer, has resigned from BAFTA following their refusal to submit any British film to the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences for consideration in the Best Foreign Language category at next year’s Oscars.
Young produced Seachd – The Inaccessible Pinnacle, the first Scottish Gaelic film to achieve mainstream cinema distribution, which has garnered strong reviews following its world premiere at the Edinburgh International Film Festival in August and was hotly tipped as the UK’s first non-English language nomination in years.
‘BAFTA is there to support British film. Not only are they not supporting a film that is actually more British, more indigenous, than the English language films they have put forward, but they are actively putting obstacles in our path,’ said Young, whose previous films include Venus Peter, Prague and the award-winning comedy-drama Festival. ‘It is dangerously close to censorship when an English-speaking committee neglects to put forward a single non-English language film for the Oscars. Seachd is competing in an incredibly tough Hollywood-dominated market, with a first time director and new acting talent. I find it inexplicable that a British film body is blocking its progress, a decision that will mean ultimately that less people will get to see the first ever Scottish Gaelic feature film.’
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences has contacted its UK counterpart demanding an explanation. Sandy Lieberson, chair of the US Academy's London committee and BAFTA member himself said, ‘I have never known a country refuse to submit a film. The merit of a film's worthiness is totally subjective and the experts are continually making grave errors of judgment about movies. Therefore it would seem only logical for BAFTA to have chosen one of the films to represent the fact that Britain is a multi-language country.’
This year 18 Western European countries were asked to submit their best non-English language films of the year for the Oscars. The United Kingdom is the only country not to put forward a nomination.
As cinema-goers flock to see Mel Gibson’s big budget ancient language epics and embrace in greater numbers than ever before a new wave of indigenous minority language films such as Ten Canoes and Atanarjuat: The Fast Runner, BAFTA seem to be completely out of touch with the global film audience.
BAFTAs failure to put Seachd forward has not gone unnoticed by politicians in Scotland and the matter on the agenda for discussion at the Scottish Parliament on Thursday 4th October. A spokeswoman for the Scottish Government said ‘We, like Scottish Screen, are, of course, extremely disappointed that the Seachd has not been forwarded for an Oscar nomination, particularly given the wide critical acclaim that the film has had.’
Seachd has been invited to the prestigious Rome Film Festival in October and has been described as ‘excellent’ by The Sunday Times, ‘breathtaking’ by the BBC, ‘tender, graceful…gorgeously-realised’ by The Herald, ‘worth shouting about’ by the Scotsman, ‘dramatic, funny and spectacular’ by The List, and ‘an astonishing production’ by Eye For Film.
