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BAFTA Awards Move Date Away From Oscar Lunch

In response to the Motion Picture Academy moving up its dates for the Oscars, the Orange British Academy Film awards will take place on February 15, 2004, instead of February 8, as originally announced. The BAFTAs have been moved so they would not clash with the Oscar nominees lunch scheduled for February 9 in Los Angeles.

Duncan Kenworthy, chair of the BAFTA's film committee, said the decision to move the date was taken with best interests of the film industry as a whole in mind. "The Oscar's nominees' lunch is an enjoyable and traditionally well attended occasion," he said. "The close proximity of the two events would have resulted in those nominated by both the British Academy and the American Academy having to choose between the two. We feel that to put nominees in this situation would quite simply be unfair. We hope that this date change will make it more likely that every BAFTA nominee will attend our awards ceremony."

The BAFTA awards had already moved from February 22 to February 8, in response to the Oscar ceremony on February 29. This will give voters more time to make their selections. The 2004 British ceremony will be held again at London's Odeon Leicester Square and will be broadcast on BBC1, as well as other territories around the world.

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