BAFTA to honour Alien editor Terry Rawlings

The British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) has announced that editor Terry Rawlings will be the subject of a BAFTA Tribute on Dec 7 at the organisation’s Piccadilly headquarters in London.

‘A BAFTA Tribute: Terry Rawlings’ will honour his contribution to picture and sound editing, and will celebrate a career spanning 50 years.

Nik Powell, chair of BAFTA’s Film Committee, said: “Terry Rawlings is one of the great editors of both sound and picture.

“For more than half a century his work has been admired by all – not least the huge audiences who have, maybe unknowingly, experienced his influence on films like The L Shaped Room, Women in Love and Bedazzled in the 1960s, The Duellists, The Great Gatsby and The Devils in the 1970s, through to classics such as Watership Down, Alien, Chariots of Fire, Yentl, Blade Runner and Goldeneye.

“Across his varied career in sound and picture editing Terry has worked with directors from Karel Reisz and Ken Russell to Ridley Scott and David Fincher.”

BAFTA produces a small number of tributes each year to recognise major figures in the film and television industries who have made a significant contribution to the form.

In recent years, BAFTA has paid tribute to journalist and broadcaster Peter Taylor OBE, factual filmmaker Roger Graef, broadcaster Delia Smith, costume designer Phyllis Dalton, production designer Sir Ken Adam, producer Betty Willingale, cinematographer Douglas Slocombe, animator Ray Harryhausen and director Nicolas Roeg.

Terry Rawlings is a five-time BAFTA nominee, recognised for his picture and sound editing across five decades on films including Alien, Chariots of Fire, and Blade Runner.

Rawlings started his career as a dubbing assistant before working as a sound, dubbing and music editor during the 1960s and early 1970s, on films directed by then emerging new talents including Jack Clayton, Karel Reisz, Ken Russell, and Michael Winner.

He was nominated for Best Soundtrack on two films at the British Academy Film Awards in 1970:  Karel Reisz’ Isadora and Ken Russell’s Women in Love.

As a picture editor, he worked on an impressive run of films in the late 1970s and early 1980s including Alien and Blade Runner, both of which saw him BAFTA-nominated, whilst Chariots of Fire gained him both BAFTA and Oscar nominations.

Rawlings has continued to work into the 1990s and 2000s on a range of high-profile features including Alien³, Goldeneye and The Phantom of the Opera.