Behind the BEC Committees - The Film Committee

In 2006, the BAFTA East Coast Board of Directors divided the Screening Committee into two separate committees; Screening and Film.  The Screening Committee (as described in an earlier post) focuses on coordinating screenings throughout the year while the Film Committee focuses on events, panels and educational initiatives relating to the motion picture arts and sciences.  Over the short and long term, the Film Committee is committed to maintaining our current (and forging new) strategic alliances with New York-based educational and arts institutions.  Additionally, we are investigating the funding of scholarships in related educational fields as well as planning more film-related event and panel discussions.

In 2007, the Film Committee held our first annual event in conjunction with the Tribeca Film Festival to honor British talent and filmmakers at the festival. The party was held at the Soho House and was atremendous success, achieving its major goals: to raise the local profile of BEC while creating a worthwhile forum for our members to interact with the next wave of British talent. Spring-boarding from the success of our first Tribeca event, our second TFF/BEC event was an official event of the Tribeca Film Festival, held at the Maritime Hotel. As an official event of the Festival, the party was listed in the Festival publications, thereby raising the BEC profile in the film community. Christina Thomas forged an alliance with Pinewood, Skillsetand UK Film Council US as co-presenters of the event which also proved to be a well- (and Celebrity-!) attended evening.

The Film Committee is currently focused on a few major initiatives.  The first is a series of panels with topics including film finance, development, distribution and music.  Motion picture production is a business that fascinates professionals and the general public as well.  With the increased interest that these panels create among our members and non-members alike, BEC is exploring these panels as a means for raising funding for other programs. 

Along with panels, the Film Committee is looking at other events such as British film week to showcase British films in New York and other similar events to bolster our relationships with film groups such as the Tribeca Film Center, Lincoln Center and the French Institute

Our last major initiative is the creation of a scholarship (full or partial) to support underprivileged students at NYU.   We are currently researching this idea and looking at alternatives for its implementation.

If you are interested in joining the film committee, especially if you have a skill set tailored to helping us meet our objectives, please email us at film@baftaeastcoast.com.  Please include your contact information and a brief description of how you see yourself contributing.