The Baftas, Britain’s leading film awards, have suffered a setback in the drive to turn them into a precursor of the Oscars.

A rule change will render ineligible films such as Clint Eastwood’s Letters from Iwo Jima even though it is tipped for Oscar glory.

Films must be released in Britain by February 9 to qualify for a British Academy of Film and Television Arts (Bafta) award. The deadline used to be the end of March. Eastwood’s film is out on February 23.

Shane Meadows, the British film-maker, has also fallen foul of the change though his film This is England has just been chosen Best Film at the British Independent Film Awards.

The Baftas were brought forward by several weeks in 2001 so that the event could be seen as a barometer of who might win on Oscar night rather than as a postscript to the American awards.

Adam Dawtrey, of Variety, the industry bible, said: “That claim to fame has been undermined this year by a rule change which has had the unexpected effect of excluding several Oscar candidates from the Bafta race.”

When Bafta closed its list of entries last week, he added, at least nine widely touted films had missed the new deadline, including The Lives of Others and The Painted Veil. He said: “That omission could be even more embarrassing if some get nominated next year, which would make Bafta seem like very old news indeed.”

David Parfitt, the chairman of its film committee, said: “Whenever we introduce a new ruling, we review it and see how it’s gone. But we don’t think we’ve made a mistake with this. It’s about making [the Baftas] relevant to the British public. It’s pointless us giving awards to films no one has seen or heard of. The films have to have opened by the time we’ve given the awards.”

Michael Kuhn, former British president of PolyGram Filmed Entertainment, which garnered ten Oscars in the 1990s with films such as Four Weddings and a Funeral, is not convinced. “If you hear that Mel Gibson’s Apocalypto has won Oscars and you’ve not seen it, the Oscar just whets your appetite to see it,” he said.

There is one advantage in Hollywood stars such as Eastwood being excluded from the Baftas: homegrown talent may have a chance to win. Last year Hollywood eclipsed Britain by winning all the main awards.

Nominations are announced on January 12. The ceremony, at the Royal Opera House in London, is on February 11.