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Pessimism beneath the glitz

Pauline McLean | 17:15 UK time, Monday, 9 November 2009

The glitz and glamour of the annual Bafta Scotland awards betrayed some pessimism in the home grown industry.

While Alan Clements, director of content at STV, tried to remain upbeat about the complete lack of any nominations for the broadcaster (the first time since 2004), others were worried it was symptomatic of a much wider problem for the industry.

Best TV actress Daniella Nardini was shocked to discover there were no female nominees at all in the Acting in Film category while Robert Carlyle - who won Best TV Actor - told reporters he was so dismayed with the lack of work here that he is considering relocating his family to Vancouver, where he's making the Hollywood sci-fi series Stargate Universe.

Carlyle made similar headlines last year after winning an award for his film Summer.

Back then, he warned the industry was being squeezed by a drop in private investment.

Good films, he said, simply weren't being made and that, he says, is even more noticeable a year down the line.

But despite the one-horse race (the Â鶹¹ÙÍøÊ×Ò³Èë¿Ú had 32 nominations, with some categories containing only Â鶹¹ÙÍøÊ×Ò³Èë¿Ú programmes) most guests were adamant that the awards were vital to the industry.

Since reintroducing the awards in 2004, both Bafta Scotland directors (first Alison Forsyth and now Helen Anderson) have tried to increase the pzazz and shuffle the categories to hide the sparser areas of production (like last year's Best Film Actress category, which solicited only one entry, Sophia Myles, who duly took home the prize without needing to even leave her own house).

While it is working, it does only highlight just how small and fragile the home-grown industry is.

The biggest appeal of the evening - aside from the chance to wander round the Science Centre with a glass of champagne in hand - is the networking and the talk of the evening was the revival of Taggart and the demise of Scottish Screen's film production fund.

While Scottish Screen is confident the fund will, like Taggart, also be brought back from the dead, it's unlikely to have any funds to release in 2010, when the process of merging Scottish Screen with the Scottish Arts Council to create the new Creative Scotland agency will continue.

That, say many of the more experienced film-makers there last night, could create real problems for the next generation of film and television talent who'll simply have to put their projects on hold, and it may create talent vacuums for Bafta Scotland in ceremonies to come.

Comments

  • Comment number 1.

    To put your mind at rest, stories of the demise of Scottish Screen's Content Production Fund are greatly exaggerated. Scottish Screen has successfully allocated the £1.7m of National Lottery funds it has at its disposal for film production for 2009/10 - this includes films due to go into production in 2010. The Content Production Fund will reopen again, at the latest, in early 2010, investing in the best Scottish talent, stories and businesses. The establishment of Creative Scotland next year will have no impact on our ability to disburse funds in 2010.

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