Award-winning Billy Elliot would have suffered from the ban, Bafta said

No preview DVDs of new films can be sent to voters of any awards except the Oscars, the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) has ruled.

They say there is too much chance that the advance copies could be pirated.

But others say it will harm the award chances of small independent films, and Bafta wants the ban overturned.

Duncan Kenworthy, chairman of Bafta's film committee, said the decision was "an extraordinary act of injustice which singles out the British Academy and the British industry for damage".

British hits like Billy Elliot and The Full Monty would have suffered if film companies had been unable to send preview copies to voters, he said.

Piracy battle

He said Bafta preview tapes or DVDs, known as "screeners", had never been pirated.

The MPAA president Jack Valenti introduced the ban because, he said, half of the screeners sent to Oscars voters last year were copied.

Hundreds of leading stars and film-makers, including Sir Michael Caine and Francis Ford Coppola, said the ban would effectively kill independent movie making.

And the Los Angeles Film Critics Association has cancelled its awards ceremony in protest at the ban.

The Bafta Awards have enjoyed greater international status in recent years since moving to before the Oscars in the award calendar.