Letters from Iwo Jimo has won two 'best film' awards in the past week

Bafta has decided only movies released in the UK before its ceremony on 11 February are eligible, instead of the end of March, as in previous years.

Some of the major titles expected to do well at the Academy Awards will have to wait until 2008 to compete for a Bafta.

The films affected include Eastwood's wartime drama Letters from Iwo Jima.

If you take the Baftas out of that mix, do you not just have the same impact anyway, as far as a British audience is concerned? Adam Dawtrey Variety magazine

Already named as the best movie of 2006 by the US National Board of Review and the Los Angeles Film Critics Association, it is not due in British cinemas until 23 February.

The same day sees the release of The Good Shepherd, a drama about the history of the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) which is directed by, and stars, De Niro.

And two weeks later, Clooney's 1940s murder thriller The Good German reaches the UK.

'Difficult position'

"This strikes at the very heart of the question of what commercial impact Bafta actually has for distributors," said Adam Dawtrey, the European editor of film industry publication Variety.

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"On the whole, there's a belief that the awards season overall has a significant commercial impact - not just the Oscars but the hype for months about the race, and clearly Bafta is a part of that.

"But if you take the Baftas out of that mix, do you not just have the same impact anyway, as far as a British audience is concerned?"

Mr Dawtrey said that distributors had "a lot of goodwill" towards Bafta, but the change of rules may put them "in a difficult position" in terms of promoting releases at the cinema.

"Let's assume Letters from Iwo Jima wins best picture Oscar [in February]," he said.

"Next year it's going to be in the running for the Baftas. So when we get round to Bafta 2008, it could be Letters from Iwo Jima night - and that's going to seem irrelevant as anything."

Overshadowed

While there was a chance that a high-quality film released many months earlier may be overshadowed by the time of the 2008 ceremony, Mr Dawtrey said Bafta was still likely to recognise it.

"If you actually win an Oscar for something - and if it's strong - I think the membership does remember," he added.

The timing of the Bafta ceremony was altered in 2002 to ensure it always took place ahead of the Academy Awards, and was not "lost" among all the hype and publicity in Hollywood.

Next year's Baftas will be staged at the Royal Opera House in London, two weeks ahead of the Oscars.