Adjusting the all-time gross list for inflation, James Cameron’s film only ranks at number 15 – with Gone With The Wind taking the top spot. Avatar might officially be the highest grossing film of all time, but that’s mostly just because it cost more to see it in 2009 than it would have done in 1939.
Britain has a long history of making great independent films that aren’t beholden to Hollywood – with most exhibiting the kind of left-field, understated, quirky charm that leans into whatever weirdness defines the national character.Īvengers Infinity Warmight technically be a British film, but it feels every inch like an American movie because it’s based on American comics, starring American actors, from an American studio.įinally, there’s the inflation problem. For most of us, when we think about “British film”, we don’t immediately think about Star Wars. London’s superior studio facilities at Pinewood, Elstree, Shepperton and Leavesden (not to mention Twickenham’s recent $50 million investment in Liverpool) gives the British film industry a massive boast – with UK technical crews and production talent now working on more than half of the highest grossing Hollywood productions made in the 20 years. Disney and Lucasfilm (and JJ Abrams) might seem as American as they come, but the film qualified for a British passport by being mostly filmed at Pinewood Studios, using ILM’s London office for the bulk of the digital effects, and by having a largely Brit cast and crew. Star Wars: The Force Awakenstops the list, letting Britain claim ownership of the third highest grossing film of all time – beaten only by Avatar and Titanic. Harry Potter And The Deathly Hallows Part 1 (2010) The same year, Mandela: Long Walk To Freedom was nixed because it was a non-British story, based on a non-British book and co-financed by a country (South Africa) that wasn’t on a qualifying shortlist – despite having a mostly British cast, crew, director and production. Gravity, for example, was given BAFTA in 2014 for Outstanding British Film – qualifying because it was filmed in an English studio, and because Mexican director Alfonso Cuaron happened to have a house in London at the time. Things get stickier still when you actually read the list of questions and poke into some of the loopholes. Getting more complicated, the BFI grants a film “British status” (for the purposes of tax relief) if it scores at least 16 points out of a possible 31 in a cultural test to assess its Britishness. The official BAFTA definition defines it as any film with “significant British involvement” that is also certified as British by the BFI. What makes a British film British? British financing? A British cast and crew? Danny Dyer?