23/01/2013 - Veteran filmmaker to receive Academy’s highest accolade

The British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) will present Sir Alan Parker (photo) with the Academy Fellowship at the British Academy Film Awards ceremony on February 10. Awarded annually by BAFTA, the Fellowship is the Academy’s highest accolade. Previously honoured Fellows include Charlie Chaplin, Alfred Hitchcock, Sean Connery, Anthony Hopkins, Laurence Olivier, Judi Dench, Vanessa Redgrave and Christopher Lee. Martin Scorsese received the Fellowship last year.

John Willis, Chairman of the Academy, said, “Sir Alan Parker is a hugely distinctive filmmaker, and a man of uncompromising vision and personality. He has made an immense contribution to the British film industry, receiving a wide range of critical and public acclaim for his writing, producing and directing across almost 40 years of filmmaking.”

Sir Alan Parker said, “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.”

Knighted in 2002 for services to the British film industry, Sir Alan’s films have won nineteen BAFTAs, ten Golden Globes and ten Oscars. Major works include Bugsy Malone, Midnight Express, The Commitments, Shoot The Moon, Pink Floyd The Wall, Mississippi Burning and, more recently, Evita.

Sir Alan served as Chairman of the Board of Governors of the British Film Institute, was the founding chairman of the UK Film Council in 1999 and was a founding member of the Directors Guild of Great Britain, which has since honoured him with its Lifetime Achievement Award.