Britain to expand scope of cooperation with China's film market

Best director Alejandro Inarritu (left) and best leading actor Leonardo DiCaprio hold their awards for The Revenant at the British Academy Film Awards in London on Feb 14. [Photo/Agencies]

BAFTA also had British makeup artist Naomi Donne share her experiences of working in the film industry with Chinese students in Beijing last year.

Berry says hosting training programs in China with experts from the British film industry would be an important step toward academic exchanges on cinema between the two countries.

BAFTA and the Beijing Film Academy signed an agreement in December, confirming their intention for further collaboration between British and Chinese students, as well as professionals.

This year, BAFTA also launched its scholarship program for Chinese mainland students, giving them up to $28,000 in tuition fees and $14,000 for individual expenses. The program, which is available in Hong Kong since 2014, attempts to offer Chinese students the chance to study film, TV and related disciplines in the UK.

The number of students to be enrolled to the program will be decided based on the skills they present, Berry says.

Prior to 2001, the BAFTA ceremonies were held in April mixing with TV awards, but Berry decided to move it to February ahead of the Oscars in the United States.

"From that change, everything started to happen," she recalls.