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Proud to be British

Matt Damon as Jason Bourne
  • Posted at 2:41pm
  • 08 February 2008
  • by AndrewCollins-RT

At this week's Baftas, The Bourne Ultimatum could win the award for best British film, even though it's made with American dollars, produced by Americans, stars an American as an American CIA assassin, and is based on an American book by an American author. It's eligible because its director, Paul Greengrass, and other "key creatives" are British.

Much as I love the film, this looks like a technicality too far. Bourne certainly doesn't feel British in the same way as the other nominees: Atonement's wartime reserve, Control's gloomy northern backdrop and This Is England's suburban skinheads. Even the Russian mafia-themed Eastern Promises is set entirely in London. Jason Bourne simply passes through Waterloo Station.

It's an ongoing juggling act. Here at Radio Times, we go by the nationality of the production companies. At Bafta between 1968 and 1982, no distinction was made between British and non-British film; the Academy handed out just one award for best film, and the likes of Women in Love and Kes had to tough it out with the rest of the world. In 1983, they brought in an award for best foreign language film, but our output still had the best of Hollywood to contend with. Indeed, during the golden years of US cinema in the 1970s, British films barely got a look-in.

Thankfully, someone saw sense at the 1993 Baftas and the Alexander Korda Award for best British film was minted. Yet confusion still reigns. In 1995, bunting was unfurled when ultra-British Four Weddings and a Funeral won best film, beating the likes of Pulp Fiction and Forrest Gump. But it wasn't even nominated for best British film. Then, in 1998, when the best film was once again British – The Full Monty – it was somehow judged not to be the best British film, which went to Nil by Mouth. It seems you can be the best film, but not necessarily the best British film!

Anyway, just sit back and think of England. And Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. Mind you, I still can't understand why the director of the best film doesn't automatically win best director.

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