AMANDA BERRY is sitting in the auditorium of the Royal Opera House in Covent Garden taking time out to talk as preparations for Sunday’s British Academy Film Awards go on all around her.

The five-day red carpet build outside the venue is well under way, she reports. Eighteen of the 20 performers nominated in the acting categories have said yes to joining the 2,000 audience at the ceremony. People are travelling all over the world to be at the British film industry’s biggest event of the year.

“I’m as ready as I can be while touching wood while saying that,” she says. The £2m ceremony involves close to 4,000 people put on the show. If that seems a lot of money, she points out that the American equivalent, the Oscars ceremony, runs up a bill close to 40 million dollars.

While Berry, who comes from Richmond in North Yorkshire, is the face behind the familiar Bafta mask, she points out that many others are involved in staging the event. They include Bafta’s production company partner Whizz Kid run by Malcolm Gerrie, former producer of Tyne Tee Television’s The Tube.

Even before Sunday’s ceremony has taken place, Berry has a book on her desk “for things we should be doing in 2016”. As she puts it, “You never stop looking ahead”.

As an Academy that represents excellence, they need to try to push the boundaries while running the event with military precision. A degree of superstition is involved so on Sunday she’ll be in her usual seat – No 17 on the right hand side. She always sits in the same place. “One year I sat in a different seat on the left rather than the right and we started to have problems with the main screen pixelating,” she recalls.

By the time the curtain goes up on Sunday there’s nothing she can do apart from keeping her fingers crossed and hoping all goes well. “By the time we get to the day I am in the hands of the experts - and there are close to 4,000 people working on the event,” she says.

Berry, a Northumbria University business studies graduate, worked as a theatrical agent and producer before joining Bafta in 1998, becoming chief executive two years later. She’s played a major role in transforming both the organisation and Bafta’s awards ceremonies. The British Academy Film Awards are now positioned as one of the top three movie ceremonies alongside the Oscars and the Golden Globes in America.

She’s said in the past that she always gives herself new challenges and this year has involved staging a lot of activities around the ceremony itself including a major photographic exhibition at Bafta, a gala fund-raising dinner and touring short films around the world. Perhaps the biggest change has been a high profile nominees party at Kensington Palace.

The differences that can be made are limited. “An awards ceremony has a formula and within that ceremony there’s only so much you can do. There are things we wouldn’t want to change, but you are always looking at things you can do differently although it’s not always about major change,” says Berry.

“In terms of profile it does feel it’s stepped up a gear. Press interest in the UK and globally has been absolutely huge. We have just announced a deal with Chinese internet company Youku Tudou to stream the awards for the first time.”

She feels it’s a particularly strong year for the British with two home-grown movies, The Theory Of Everything and The Imitation Game, up for best film and three British performers – Eddie Redmayne, Ralph Fiennes and Benedict Cumberbatch – nominated for best actor. “I’m very proud when the British are in the major categories because they are competing with the very best in the world,” she adds.

AND THE NOMINATIONS ARE...

The Grand Budapest Hotel leads the pack with 11 nominations, while Birdman and The Theory Of Everything have ten nods and The Imitation Game just behind with nine. Those four, together with Boyhood, compete for the best film award.

Best actor: Eddie Redmayne, Ralph Fiennes, Benedict Cumberbatch, Jake Gyllenhaal and Michael Keaton.

Best actress: Felicity Jones, Julianne Moore, Rosamund Pike, Reese Witherspoon and Amy Adams.

Best director: Wes Anderson (The Grand Budapest Hotel), James Marsh (The Theory Of Everything), Richard Linklater (Boyhood), Damien Chazelle (Whiplash) and Alejandro G Inarritu (Birdman).

Best British film: ’71, The Imitation Game, Paddington, Pride, The Theory Of Everything and Under The Skin.

The British Academy Film Awards can be seen on Sunday on BBC1 from 9pm.