Harry Potter Films to Receive BAFTA Achievement Award

[Greg Tito]

Harry Potter Films to Receive BAFTA Achievement Award

At the British Film Awards this month, the Harry Potter films will receive an award for "Outstanding British Contribution to Cinema."

The entire 8 film series is quite an achievement. The first film, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, was unleashed to the public in 2001, before the final three books were even published. The cast has remained consistent throughout in part because, author J.K. Rowling's contract stipulations for selling the rights to the series to Warner Brothers demanded that the actors all be British. The rule has stayed largely in place, with concessions made for European characters in The Goblet of Fire, and producer David Heyman was instrumental in keeping the faith. Both Heyman and Rowling will be honored with the award at the Orange British Academy Film Awards on February 13th.

"As this great British film success story draws to a close with this year's eagerly anticipated final installment, it's fitting that BAFTA honors the Harry Potter films and their contribution to the British film industry," said Finola Dwyer from BAFTA.

David Heyman said he was accepting the award "on behalf of the over 2,000 people who worked in front of and behind the camera on each of the Harry Potter films." He thanked them for all of their work before expressing gratitude to the woman behind Harry Potter. "Thank you to Jo Rowling for entrusting us to bring her magnificent books to the screen."

The award, introduced in 1978, has previously been given to British filmmakers like Mike Leigh, Kenneth Branagh and Working Title Films (The Big Lebowski, Mr. Bean).

What the Harry Potter films have achieved is staggering when you realize the scope of the project. An 8 film series produced within ten years with the same cast, tracing their growth from grade school to adolescence and beyond. Not even Jackson's Lord of the Rings could match the breadth of what the Harry Potter films have accomplished in the Oughts. Not to mention that the movies have made almost $6.3 billion worldwide, and that's without the last film that's set to hit theaters on July 15th.

Yeah, I'd say that's pretty outstanding.

Source: Hollywood Reporter [http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/harry-potter-franchise-receive-bafta-96269]

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[GeneticallyModifiedDucks]

And they've managed to stay consistently good, for the most part. Well deserved award.

 

[KeyMaster45]

Ah the memories, I remember being a bright eyed, innocent child yet to be corrupted by the internet. Waiting in line at the midnight opening of the first movie. My town did not yet have a theater with stadium seating. Tickets and snacks were dirt cheap and the floors of the theater were coated in a film of a questionably sticky substance who's origin no one really wanted to know.

The final movie had better kick 9 kinds of ass or I will be raising an angry mob to launch the first successful invasion of the UK in the last couple centuries.

 

[Spoon E11]

well In 10 years of consistent good to great films they are well deserved.

 

[Distorted Stu]

HP has been a huge impact on my life and the people i know. Damn this deserves the BAFTA, a medal, a country named after them, a space port in its honor and some for of sexual thanks to all the crew who helped make it awesome.

 

[Albino Boo]

Personally I have never seen the attraction in the Harry Potter books/films but I'll concede a lot of other people have. I just feel its too soon to be awarding such a prestiougs award to film franchise that will be forgotten in 10 years time. If its purely longevity or bums on seats that is criteria for the award, surely the Bond franchise with is $11 billion box office and 21 movies (with more on the way) should beat it hands down. Plus that fact Harry Potter dosn't have the line "I was just out walking my RAT and seem to have lost my way.."

 

[Me55enger]

An inevitability.

Congratulations to you, Mrs/Miss Rowling, im sure you're fame and talent are well deserved.

 

[blarghblarghhhhh]

Personally I have never seen the attraction in the Harry Potter books/films but I'll concede a lot of other people have. I just feel its too soon to be awarding such a prestiougs award to film franchise that will be forgotten in 10 years time. If its purely longevity or bums on seats that criteria for the award surely the Bond franchise with is $11 billion box office and 21 movies (with more on the way) should beat it hands down. Plus that fact Harry Potter dosn't have the line "I was just out walking my RAT and seem to have lost my way.."

I think you seriously underestimate harry potter fans. those books arnt going anywhere in the next twenty years. they will wain into a cult-classic of sorts within the next fifty years or so. mark my words.

 

[Freemon]

Well deserved. I read the all the books before getting my hands on the films since i was very skeptical about a film adaptation. I ended up enjoying them quite a lot. Congratulations to everyone involved. Including the lady at the cinema who gave me free tickets for deadly hollows because she recognized me from all the previous films. I love local cozy cinemas with an an eternal aroma of popcorn and sticky weird stuff covering the floor.

 

[captaincabbage]

Absolutely deserved.

I think Movie Bob summed up the Harry Potter franchise better than anyone else as "The single largest mega-production in the history of cinema. One cast telling one story over eight movies and more than ten years."
I'm paraphrasing a bit, but that's about right.

 

[RMcD94]

Personally I have never seen the attraction in the Harry Potter books/films but I'll concede a lot of other people have. I just feel its too soon to be awarding such a prestiougs award to film franchise that will be forgotten in 10 years time. If its purely longevity or bums on seats that criteria for the award surely the Bond franchise with is $11 billion box office and 21 movies (with more on the way) should beat it hands down. Plus that fact Harry Potter dosn't have the line "I was just out walking my RAT and seem to have lost my way.."

I think you seriously underestimate harry potter fans. those books arnt going anywhere in the next twenty years. they will wain into a cult-classic of sorts within the next fifty years or so. mark my words.

Agreed, if you want some sort of scope just nip onto fanfiction.net

http://www.fanfiction.net/book/

Look at all the books and the number of stories written, hit sort by popularity.

That's right

Harry Potter (500,751)

Now that's not the most accurate mark of length, but it is something. I'm pretty sure it's the highest on FF, Naruto only has 250000, the highest game only 60,000. TV is another 45000.

 

[blarghblarghhhhh]

Personally I have never seen the attraction in the Harry Potter books/films but I'll concede a lot of other people have. I just feel its too soon to be awarding such a prestiougs award to film franchise that will be forgotten in 10 years time. If its purely longevity or bums on seats that criteria for the award surely the Bond franchise with is $11 billion box office and 21 movies (with more on the way) should beat it hands down. Plus that fact Harry Potter dosn't have the line "I was just out walking my RAT and seem to have lost my way.."

I think you seriously underestimate harry potter fans. those books arnt going anywhere in the next twenty years. they will wain into a cult-classic of sorts within the next fifty years or so. mark my words.

Agreed, if you want some sort of scope just nip onto fanfiction.net

http://www.fanfiction.net/book/

Look at all the books and the number of stories written, hit sort by popularity.

That's right

Harry Potter (500,751)

Now that's not the most accurate mark of length, but it is something. I'm pretty sure it's the highest on FF, Naruto only has 250000, the highest game only 60,000. TV is another 45000.

that number looks even bigger when compared to twilight which is currently sitting at 174k. harry potter has had quite a few years to get an early head start on twilight but theres no way it will even surpass it.

harry potter is special to alot of people because they literally grew up with the characters in the books and the actors/actresses on screen. Im not saying its the best book series or movie series ever recorded, but it will continue to resonate with people for a very long time.

 

[Yoshisummons]

Can we wait until the last .5 of the 7th movie come out? I mean really, used to be a big potter fan but that last movie ruined so much, the inconsistencies with the wands and their use.....*list goes on for a while* and the image of wizard Nazi's(side note, why does spell check insist that Nazi is capitalized? The SC program has Nazi sentiments!) was not something I was expecting.

 

[VondeVon]

I guess I'm bitter, but I find it difficult to see the HP movies as anything other than a grab for money. You might say it's impressive that they made so many movies in such a short time frame whilst keeping the original actors, but it's not like they had much of a choice with the actors growing up so quickly. And this rush led to movies not being as good as they could/should have been. Absolutely shocking scriptwriting, hit and miss casting and canon conflicts grated on my last nerve.

The effects were good and I genuinely admire them for churning out the movies as well as they did in such a short time frame, but that doesn't make the movies themselves spectacular. They were B-grade at best.

I am really, really looking forward to the inevitable remakes, twenty years down the line. Hopefully by then everything will have been organised in advance so well that they can pull in some actors and film quickly without sacrificing everything they had to this go-around.

 

[VondeVon]

Personally I have never seen the attraction in the Harry Potter books/films but I'll concede a lot of other people have. I just feel its too soon to be awarding such a prestiougs award to film franchise that will be forgotten in 10 years time. If its purely longevity or bums on seats that criteria for the award surely the Bond franchise with is $11 billion box office and 21 movies (with more on the way) should beat it hands down. Plus that fact Harry Potter dosn't have the line "I was just out walking my RAT and seem to have lost my way.."

I think you seriously underestimate harry potter fans. those books arnt going anywhere in the next twenty years. they will wain into a cult-classic of sorts within the next fifty years or so. mark my words.

Agreed, if you want some sort of scope just nip onto fanfiction.net

http://www.fanfiction.net/book/

Look at all the books and the number of stories written, hit sort by popularity.

That's right

Harry Potter (500,751)

Now that's not the most accurate mark of length, but it is something. I'm pretty sure it's the highest on FF, Naruto only has 250000, the highest game only 60,000. TV is another 45000.

Ahh, fanfiction. I do love it so. In fact, if it weren't for fanfiction, I think the Harry Potter craze would not be as strong as it is - especially after the series stumbled around Book 5. There are some stories over at ff.n that are far and away better than anything Rowling has written and it acts as a constant generator of enjoyment and excitement for the fans between novels and movies.

And don't forget all those uncountable fics over on Schnoogle (or other independent fic archive sites) or the faceless LJ accounts.

For the record, I hate LJ ficcers. Especially the ones who withdraw to LJ to cultivate a personal fangroup, so as to not slum it with all those amateur writers on ff.n.

 

[GoGo_Boy]

Too bad the movies are terrible

 

[Ilikemilkshake]

Personally I have never seen the attraction in the Harry Potter books/films but I'll concede a lot of other people have. I just feel its too soon to be awarding such a prestiougs award to film franchise that will be forgotten in 10 years time. If its purely longevity or bums on seats that is criteria for the award, surely the Bond franchise with is $11 billion box office and 21 movies (with more on the way) should beat it hands down. Plus that fact Harry Potter dosn't have the line "I was just out walking my RAT and seem to have lost my way.."

Im actually just counting the days til we get the inevitable remake and/or prequal and/or spin off series

there's no way they'll let such a lucrative franchise just die off and be forgotten

 

[Catchy Slogan]

Personally I have never seen the attraction in the Harry Potter books/films but I'll concede a lot of other people have. I just feel its too soon to be awarding such a prestiougs award to film franchise that will be forgotten in 10 years time. If its purely longevity or bums on seats that criteria for the award surely the Bond franchise with is $11 billion box office and 21 movies (with more on the way) should beat it hands down. Plus that fact Harry Potter dosn't have the line "I was just out walking my RAT and seem to have lost my way.."

I think you seriously underestimate harry potter fans. those books arnt going anywhere in the next twenty years. they will wain into a cult-classic of sorts within the next fifty years or so. mark my words.

Agreed, if you want some sort of scope just nip onto fanfiction.net

http://www.fanfiction.net/book/

Look at all the books and the number of stories written, hit sort by popularity.

That's right

Harry Potter (500,751)

Now that's not the most accurate mark of length, but it is something. I'm pretty sure it's the highest on FF, Naruto only has 250000, the highest game only 60,000. TV is another 45000.

Since you have made your post an extra 43 HP fanfics have been posted.