26/09/2013 - Past winners of this award created in 1983 include Vanessa Redgrave, Judi Dench and Isabelle Huppert

Greg Dyke, Chair of the British Film Institute (BFI) presented veteran film critic Philip French (photo) with the BFI Fellowship at a ceremony at BFI Southbank on September 25. The BFI Board of Governors bestows the BFI Fellowship on individuals who have made an outstanding contribution to film and television culture. It is the highest award that the BFI can confer and previous recipients includeMartin Scorsese, Vanessa Redgrave, Judi Dench, Isabelle Huppert, Ousmane Sembene, Orson Welles, Satyajit Ray and Akira Kurosawa.This is the 76th BFI Fellowship presented since the award was created in 1983.

The award was presented following an on-stage conversation between Sir Christopher Frayling and Philip French, celebrating a 50-year career in film journalism. Guests included Terence Davies, Douglas Slocombe, Jeremy Thomas, Maryam D’Abo, Hugh Hudson, and Amanda Nevill, BFI CEO.

Philip French is regarded as one of the most influential British writers on film of the last 50 years. He was The Observer’s main film critic from 1976 to 2013, and is also the author of several books on cinema including The Movie Moguls, Westerns, and Malle On Malle.

Dyke said, “As one of the most important and influential British writers on film and film-related subjects of the last 50 years or more Philip has done more than perhaps any other writer to build a critical context for the informed watching and making of film.”