Producer of a clutch of well-received British movies, such as The Crying Game, Nik Powell has been charged with revamping the European Film Academy
When it started, it was a live broadcast, all around Europe. In Year Two, we got recorded highlights. In Year Three, I happened to find myself unable to sleep in a hotel room in Madrid at 3 o'clock in the morning and there it was, on a Spanish cable channel, scheduled in among the cookery programmes and the documentaries about the mating habits of the Indonesian green turtle.
I speak, in case you hadn't realised, of the European Film Awards, the Felixes, which have gone from a full-blown, stars-and-songs awards show to being, in 1996, a modest lunch-time get-together. Even then, technical problems prevented the telecast from going out on time.
All this, you will be pleased to hear, is due to change, with the appointment of Nik Powell, producer of such movies as The Company of Wolves, Mona Lisa and The Crying Game, as chairman of the Felixes' organising body, the European Film Academy, with a brief to take it forward into an era of privatisation (sponsors are being sought), where popularity and promotion are the essence, not the devil.
Powell accepts that the image of EFA has declined, but thinks this was probably almost inevitable, at any rate it is in the context of what has happened to other, similar bodies.
'When I got the job of chairman,'
he says, 'I looked at the history of the other academies, and in particular at the history of the American Academy. All academies start up here' - he holds his hand at head level - 'with big ambitions and big intentions, then they tend to slip down. After the war, the studios pretty much withdrew their support from the Academy and it was the independents that seized upon it and kept it going. Then the studios came back into it and, with the advent of television in the 50s, it turned from being a relatively parochial event in Los Angeles into something very major.'
Powell's aim is to begin the slow process of building EFA (back) into something major, broadening the membership from the original elitist 100, and setting up Associate (non-voting) membership for anybody interested in European film. There are also plans to institute a 'People's Award' - along the lines of the US pre-Oscar gong of the same name - to make the event better known.
And top PR company DDA will be working with Powell and EFA to promote and produce the event and the ceremony, which will be held in its usual slot in December (though the precise date cannot be confirmed until a venue is fixed).
Powell accepts that the Felix is never quite going to be the Oscar. 'But, in five years, maybe a bit longer, I think we can and will become a major event in the film calendar, a well-reported event, with a television broadcast through most of Europe.'
Above all, he reckons he couldn't be starting off at a better time in terms of the profile of European film. 'This has been a great year. We had Breaking the Waves, where Emily was nominated for a US Oscar, we had Secrets & Lies, which has been nominated for best film, and other nominations. So, you know, we had films that have featured in all of the major awards. And our date comes at the beginning of the awards season. We are before the critics' awards in America, we're out before the Golden Globes; so I would like the Felixes to be perceived by the industry as the place where you start your campaign.
'I think also that broadening the membership will help. While you have 100, mainly older, members, certain kinds of films are going to get selected. But if we can double or triple the number of voting members, I think we will inevitably, at least in the nominations and probably also in the voting process, get the films that have been more widely distributed and are truly popular.
'Then, once this is established, the ultimate aim is for the Felix to boost the box office of European films. You know what the effect of the Oscars is: it adds ten of millions of dollars. We won't be able to have the same effect in terms of size, but I think we can certainly add to the box office.'
The struggle to get the Felix back on track will, Powell admits, not be easy. But he reckons that it is worth it. And he also cautiously concedes that the bull-in-a-china-shop approach for which he is famous may turn out to be something of an advantage.
'I think you can often make a wrong decision because of political pressures,' he says. 'We see it in governments all the time. The disadvantage for someone like me is you can end up easily alienating people, so I have to be a bit guided by Marion [Döring, long-time manager of EFA] and other members of the board who appointed me. But I think there are certain things that it's wonderful to be ignorant about.'
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