Angels Costumes: Outstanding British Contribution to Cinema

Angels Costumes has been honoured with the award for Outstanding British Contribution to Cinema.

Now in its 175th year, Angels Costumes is the world’s longest-established and largest professional costume house, having become an integral part of the international film industry over the past century. With a collection that spans eight miles of hanging rails, and is made up of over 1m items of clothing, Angels is one of the most well-respected and celebrated companies in the industry, providing costumes for theatre, TV, film, photo shoots, advertisements and music videos.

Since the emergence of cinema in the early 1900s, Angels has worked closely with some of the medium’s most pre-eminent figures, including Alfred Hitchcock, Powell and Pressburger, David Lean, Michael Balcon, Herbert Wilcox, Anthony Asquith, Richard Attenborough, Alan Parker, Anthony Minghella, Martin Scorsese, and Steven Spielberg. As well as working across genres and franchises: from the Ealing Comedies, films produced by Gainsborough Studios and Hammer, to the Carry On films, Bond, Star Wars, Pirates of the Caribbean, and Harry Potter.

Established in 1840, Angels is a seventh-generation family business, led by Chairman Tim Angel OBE, who has also served as Chairman of BAFTA and a Governor of the BFI. Angels has worked on numerous productions that have won a BAFTA or Oscar for Best Costume, including: Hamlet, Doctor Zhivago, Star Wars, Chariots of Fire, Braveheart, The English Patient, Shakespeare in Love, Sleepy Hollow, The Duchess, Anna Karenina, The Great Gatsby, and The Grand Budapest Hotel. In 2016, Angels also supplied costumes to several films nominated at the EE British Academy Film Awards, including Cinderella, The Danish Girl, Bridge of Spies and The Lady in the Van.

“To have been at the heart of the British and international film industry from the very start is an incredible achievement, and we are all honoured to play a role in its continued growth. As cinema has evolved and changed, so too has Angels, and we are looking forward to seeing what the next hundred years of film will bring!” – Tim Angel OBE, Chairman of Angels Costumes

The Outstanding British Contribution to Cinema Award is presented annually in honour of Michael Balcon, the British film producer known for his work with Ealing Studios. Previous recipients include Mike Leigh, Kenneth Branagh, Derek Jarman, Mary Selway, Ridley and Tony Scott, Working Title Films, Lewis Gilbert, the Harry Potter series of films, John Hurt, Peter Greenaway and Tessa Ross. Last year’s recipient was BBC Films.

For more inspiring stories from the world of film, games and TV, explore our BAFTA Award Stories section.