BAFTA to honor Alan Parker

BAFTA will present Alan Parker with its Academy Fellowship at the Feb. 10 BAFTA Awards in London.

Considered the org's highest honor, the fellowship has previously been given to artists including Charlie Chaplin, Alfred Hitchcock, Steven Spielberg, Sean Connery, Elizabeth Taylor, Stanley Kubrick, Anthony Hopkins, Laurence Olivier, Judi Dench, Vanessa Redgrave, Christopher Lee and, last year, Martin Scorsese. 

“Sir Alan Parker is a hugely distinctive filmmaker, and a man of uncompromising vision and personality," BAFTA chairman John Willis said. "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.

"It’s almost impossible to highlight any one moment of his career, but the incredible 19 BAFTAs his films have won indicate the esteem in which he is held by his peers, as well as the outstanding nature of his work.  I’m delighted that the Academy has taken this opportunity to recognise Sir Alan with the Fellowship this year.”

Parker's credits include "Bugsy Malone," "Midnight Express," "The Commitments" and "Evita." He also 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, from which he also received a Lifetime Achievement Award.  

“When you make your first film, you’re sure it will be your last," Parker said. "And then you squeeze your eyes together and suddenly, 40 years later, you’re at BAFTA getting an award like this. I’m of course enormously flattered and honored.”