THE BRITISH AND THE OSCAR©

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Interview Excerpts

Quotes

"Of course the Academy Awards are fantastically important. If you take the Oscars away you lose two things immediately; 1) The Oscars are the only reason for the film industry not to look only at the box office 2) Also you have millions of dollars of free publicity every year for a particular type of movie, the type I made i.e. not huge box office smashes. It is absolutely self evident you need that excuse once a year to seek out and recognize excellence, otherwise why should anyone strive for it if no-one ever recognizes it?"

LORD PUTTNAM

Phyllis Dalton - "Each Oscar could be classed as almost bookends to my career."

Jeremy Thomas - "Of course it affected my career, because within this career winning an Oscar is like being anointed, a sort of statement, which in turn gave me extra credibility in Hollywood."

Lindy Hemmings - "Anybody who says that winning an Oscar wasn't an important event in their lives must lead very eventful lives!"

Julian Fellowes - "I said to (fellow nominee) Chris Nolan after winning my Oscar 'Look I'm 52 I need this!'"

Ronald Harwood - "It is no good be blase about it, it is wonderful to be honoured by your peers."

Oswald Morris - "Oh yes terribly important. To be voted into the top five for your particular category is really a huge honour."

Christine Blundell - "I finally got an agent; upon my return with the Oscar in my hand I had three or four messages from the big agents in town. Which I welcomed with open arms having spent all these years without one, it's great"

Michael Deeley - "I was delighted; yes delighted I thought at least I have won .... something that you don't get many chances to get, an Oscar, so I was delighted"

David Niven - "It was all very nerve-racking but as the day came nearer; I found that I wanted that Oscar desperately"

Richard Hymns - "I think it was important to my career, in that each Oscar led me to better and better films to work on"

Anthony Powell - "In interviews it is always 'triple Oscar winner Anthony Powell."

Lord Attenborough - "If you work in movies, being awarded an Oscar marks the absolute pinnacle of your career. There is nothing in the world to beat it."

David Parfitt - "Look, did I expect to win? No, Did I want to win? Absolutely, no hesitation - YES!"

Tim Rice - "Well certainly my aim at the beginning of the nineties was to turn my career around and winning certainly did that."

Martin Childs - "The Academy Awards are an opportunity to celebrate excellence... Opinions are divided, but excellence gets discussed, looked for, aspired to, and never quite defined. That can only be a good thing."

Julie Christie - "Whilst it IS a huge honour I was concerned that they had given this award to somebody who really did not have a huge body of work behind them, surely it can't be me!"

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