British director Sir Alan Parker is to receive the Academy Fellowship at the upcoming BAFTA awards.
Awarded annually, BAFTA’s fellowship recognises outstanding and exceptional contribution to film. Previous winners include Charlie Chaplin, Alfred Hitchcock and Steven Spielberg, as well as last year’s winner, Martin Scorsese.
“[Parker] has made an immense contribution to the British film industry, receiving a wide range of critical public acclaim for his writing, producing and directing across almost 40 years of film making,” said John Willis, chairman of the Academy.
Parker’s first feature film as writer and director was Bugsy Malone in 1975, for which he won the BAFTA Screenplay award. His films have won 17 other BAFTAs - including best direction for Midnight Express (1977) - ten Golden Globes and ten Oscars.
Other notable features include Fame, Pink Floyd: The Wall, Mississippi Burning, The Commitments, Evita and Angela’s Ashes. He last film as a director to date was crime drama The Life of David Gale, starring Kate Winslet and Kevin Spacey, in 2003.
Parker was the founding chairman of the UK Film Council in 1999 and founding member of the Directors Guild of Great Britain which has since honoured him with its Lifetime Achievement Award.
He was knighted in 2002 for services to the British Film Industry.
“When you make your first film, you’re sure it will be your last. And then you squeeze your eyes together and suddenly, forty years later, you’re at BAFTA getting an award like this. I’m of course enormously flattered and honoured,” said Parker.
The ceremony, held at London’s Royal Opera House, will be hosted by Stephen Fry and broadcast on BBC One in the UK on Feb 10. It has also been sold to major territories around the world.
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