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Mike Leigh to be Honoured with BAFTA Fellowship

3 February 2015
The British Academy Film Awards in 2011BAFTA/Richard Kendal

Leigh will receive the award at the EE British Academy Film Awards on Sunday 8 February

London, 3 February 2015: On Sunday 8 February, the British Academy of Film and Television Arts will present Mike Leigh with the Fellowship at the EE British Academy Film Awards ceremony at the Royal Opera House, London.

Awarded annually, the Fellowship is the highest accolade bestowed by BAFTA upon an individual in recognition of an outstanding and exceptional contribution to film, television or games.

Fellows previously honoured for their work in film include Charlie Chaplin, Alfred Hitchcock, Steven Spielberg, Sean Connery, Elizabeth Taylor, Stanley Kubrick, Anthony Hopkins, Laurence Olivier, Judi Dench, Vanessa Redgrave, Christopher Lee, Martin Scorsese and Alan Parker. Helen Mirren received the Fellowship at last year’s Film Awards.

Mike Leigh said: “What a privilege to be honoured with the BAFTA Fellowship. I'm moved, delighted and surprised.”

Amanda Berry OBE, Chief Executive of BAFTA, said: “Mike Leigh is one of Britain’s finest filmmakers, so I am delighted that we will honour him with the Fellowship, recognising his outstanding and exceptional contribution to film, at this Sunday’s EE British Academy Film Awards. He is a true innovator, an artist and an exceptional filmmaker, which is why last year the Film Committee voted unanimously to award him the Fellowship, the highest honour that BAFTA bestows. We look forward to celebrating his remarkable career.”

This Saturday, the day before the ceremony, Mike Leigh will join a number of close colleagues and friends at a special BAFTA lunch held in his honour at the Awards’ Official Hotel, The Savoy. The lunch will be hosted by Jeremy Hackett of Hackett London, BAFTA’s Official Menswear partner.

Writer-director Mike Leigh trained at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, at the Camberwell and Central Schools of Art and at the London Film School, of which he is now the Chairman.

Leigh's award-winning career features three BAFTA wins, a BAFTA Special Award for Outstanding British Contribution to Cinema and a John Schlesinger Britannia Award for Excellence from BAFTA Los Angeles last year, as well as a further 11 BAFTA nominations. He has seven Academy Award nominations and has been celebrated in Cannes, winning the prestigious Palme D'Or for Secrets & Lies, and at Venice, where Vera Drake won the Golden Lion.

Leigh's first feature film was Bleak Moments; this was followed by the full-length television films Hard Labour, Nuts In May, The Kiss of Death, Who's Who, Grown-Ups, Home Sweet Home, Meantime and Four Days In July, as well as the television studio version of Abigail's Party.

Leigh's other feature films are BAFTA-nominated Naked and BAFTA-winning Secrets & Lies (for Outstanding British Film and Original Screenplay), which also received five Academy Award nominations and two Golden Globe nominations, and Career Girls, Topsy-Turvy, All Or Nothing, Vera Drake (for which he won BAFTA for Director), Happy-Go-Lucky and Another Year. Most recently he has written and directed Mr. Turner, which received four nominations at this year's EE British Academy Film Awards and four Academy Award nominations.

Leigh has also written and directed over twenty stage plays, which include ‘Babies Grow Old’, ‘Abigail's Party’, ‘Ecstasy’, ‘Goose-Pimples’, ‘Smelling A Rat’, ‘Greek'. 

The EE British Academy Film Awards take place on Sunday 8 February at The Royal Opera House in London’s Covent Garden. Stephen Fry will be returning to host this year’s ceremony, which will be broadcast exclusively on BBC One in the UK – preceded by a red carpet show on BBC Three – and in all major territories around the world. On the night, www.bafta.org will also feature red carpet highlights, photography and winners’ interviews, as well as dedicated coverage on its social networks including Facebook (/BAFTA), Twitter (@BAFTA #EEBAFTAs), Tumblr and Instagram.

Notes to editors

Previous BAFTA honours for Mike Leigh

Special Awards

1996: Outstanding British Contribution to Cinema

2014: John Schlesinger Britannia Award for Artistic Excellence in Directing

(Presented by BAFTA Los Angeles)

Competitive Awards – 3 wins, and 11 further nominations:

Previous wins

Year Film Category
1996/97 Secrets & Lies Outstanding British Film
1996/97 Secrets & Lies Original Screenplay
2004/05 Vera Drake Director

Previous noms 

Year Film Category
1987/88 Short and Curlies Short Film
1992/93 Sense of History, A Short Film
1993/94 Naked Outstanding British Film
1996/97 Secrets & Lies Best Film
1996/97 Secrets & Lies Director
1999/00 Topsy-Turvy Outstanding British Film
1999/00 Topsy-Turvy Original Screenplay
2004/05 Vera Drake Outstanding British Film
2004/05 Vera Drake Original Screenplay
2010/11 Another Year Outstanding British Film

For further information, please contact:

Kerry Porter                                                                  Emma Micklewright

020 3003 6648                                                               020 3003 6353

[email protected]                                              [email protected]

About BAFTA

The British Academy of Film and Television Arts is an independent charity that supports, develops and promotes the art forms of the moving image by identifying and rewarding excellence, inspiring practitioners and benefiting the public. In addition to its Awards ceremonies, BAFTA has a year-round Learning & Events programme that offers unique access to some of the world’s most inspiring talent through workshops, masterclasses, lectures, scholarships and mentoring schemes, connecting with audiences of all ages and backgrounds across the UK, Los Angeles and New York. BAFTA relies on income from membership subscriptions, individual donations, trusts, foundations and corporate partnerships to support its ongoing outreach work. For further information, visit www.bafta.org and www.bafta.org/guru.