You want a Bafta award, but your film isn't out yet – or worse, it may have been and gone, or be a tiny release art film. How do you make the required impact? For more than a decade, in the scramble for awards votes, one particular weapon has proved of enduring effectiveness: the DVD screener.
Every year, in October and November, every voting member of the British Academy of Film and Television Arts (Bafta) will take regular delivery of packages of shiny new DVDs, all marked "For your consideration" and accompanied by dire warnings of the legal penalties that will follow should anyone succumb to the temptation to upload them to the internet. (Several even carry the polite request that the watcher break them in half immediately after viewing.) This year, Bafta film voters received more than 70 DVDs – about 10 of which were already available in the shops, but most are specially prepared pre-release discs. This Sunday will see the outcome of all that lobbying as the winners of this year's Baftas are announced at the award ceremony at London's Royal Opera House.
Amanda Berry, Bafta's chief executive, is clear on the benefit to her members." We try and encourage everyone to see the films on the big screen, which is why we have a large screening programme, with around 50 Q&As. But with the best will in the world, it's not possible for everyone to see everything. Sending out DVDs is not about replacing the cinema experience; it's about allowing members to be as informed as possible before they vote."
Of course, Bafta don't send out the DVDs themselves: that is organised and paid for by the individual film distributors, using the Bafta members list. No one will reveal the exact cost of sending a DVD to each of the 6,500 or so Bafta members (roughly 5,000 of whom are in the UK, with the rest overseas, mostly in the US) but this unavoidable add-on to the marketing budget for an awards contender is a burden even a small distributor is prepared to shoulder – if you get the right result. Philip Knatchbull, chief executive of the art house and foreign-language specialist film company Artificial Eye, says: "They are almost essential to achieve nominations in the major categories, because this is how the majority of members will see most films. Obviously, it is the film itself that will determine whether it is nominated, but we have to make sure the Bafta members have all had the opportunity to see it. In that respect, DVDs seem to be the key tool."
Knatchbull's company sent out a package containing We Need to Talk About Kevin, Wuthering Heights, The Deep Blue Sea and Melancholia, as well as a retail DVD of Archipelago and putting the Wim Wenders dance film Pina and the Iranian divorce drama A Separation on to Bafta's online platforms. The results though, have definitely been mixed: Kevin has three nominations, including best actress for Tilda Swinton, while Pina and A Separation are up for best foreign-language film – with the latter the hot favourite.
Knatchbull says: "Certainly it is well worth the spend if you can secure a nomination in one of the key categories – best actress, best film, best director etc. But you can't know for certain whether you will be nominated though, so you spend the money regardless of the outcome."
The habit of sending out films – allowable under Bafta's rules of no gifts and no lobbying – began some 15 years ago, in the VHS days, but the rise of the DVD has also been accompanied by an exponential rise in piracy. It's been an endemic problem in the US, with near-routine leaking of Academy Award screeners and occasional prosecution of offenders. The late Jack Valenti, former head of the Motion Picture Association of America, tried to get the film industry to ban screeners, but the attempt failed.
However, recent analysis by a Wired magazine columnist, Andy Baio, suggested the tide in the US was turning, with fewer screeners – just eight out of the 33 sent out – being leaked online before release.
Bafta, fortunately, seems to be in a more respectable place, as far as piracy goes. Berry says that, to her knowledge, no member of Bafta has been responsible for an online leak. "People really do realise that having screeners is a privilege, not a right; they take their responsibility very seriously. We have a very clear code of conduct that members sign up to: they agree that the screeners are for their own use. It would be up to the individual distributors to take legal action, but any breach of the agreement would result in loss of membership. So far, we haven't had to do that."
Along with the MPAA, Bafta is trialling iTunes as a vehicle for its nominated films, and electronic delivery – which will take advantage of Apple's own security systems – looks like the future. Despite questions about its security, the Oscars look set to switch to an internet-based voting system next year – something the Baftas have operated since 2003.In the end, though, it's as well to remember awards are all about one thing: marketing. Does Bafta harm or help? Knatchbull says: "We release We Need To Talk About Kevin two weeks after the Bafta ceremony. Our three nominations, all in major categories, are no doubt going to add profile to the film's DVD release. We would hope that would add to our DVD sales – and certainly not reduce it."
