Tilda Swinton To Receive BFI Fellowship

The BFI today announces that Tilda Swinton is to receive one of British Film’s highest honours,the BFI Fellowship. The news was announced today with the actress receiving her award at an event in March.

Tilda’s daringly eclectic and striking talents as a performer and filmmaker and recognises her great contribution to film culture, independent film exhibition and philanthropy. Revered by the avant-garde and British and World independent cinema, Tilda also seamlessly crosses over into studio films, winning the Best Supporting Actor Oscar and BAFTA for Michael Clayton (Tony Gilroy, 2007).

Tilda Swinton said “Fellowship and BFI are two of my favourite words. And the beginning and end of the reason I live my life in the cinema in the first place. I am very happy and touched by this honour. And I share it entirely with my beloved filmmaking playmates, living and departed.”

The BFI Fellowship is presented alongside a Tilda Swinton season at BFI Southbank in March (1-18 March), curated in collaboration with Tilda herself and featuring her work and her inspirations, including a special Tilda in Conversation event on Tuesday 3 March.

Tilda’s fresh-eyed curiosity, anarchic spirit and instinct for collecting conspirators were all forged in the intensely creative collaboration she shared with artist and filmmaker Derek Jarman. Jarman gave Tilda her first film role in Caravaggio (1987) and she worked with him on a further six feature films including the anti-Thatcherite The Last of England (1987) and anthology film Aria (segment Depuis le jour, 1987).

Tilda has enjoyed a risk taking, unconventional career, relishing in make believe and shape shifting identities. She won great acclaim for playing the title role in Sally Potter’s adaptation of Virginia Woolf’s Orlando (1992), playing both the male and female roles and capturing the public and Hollywood’s attention.

Tilda has worked with a range of auteur filmmakers with big artistic visions and compelling world views, sustaining and developing these relationships by collaborating on a number of separate projects; including Luca Guadagnino, Wes Anderson, Jim Jarmusch, Joanna Hogg, the Coen brothers, Bong Joon-ho  and Lynne Ramsay.

Tilda is well known to family and mainstream audiences for her scary turn as The White Witch in three films in The Chronicles of Narnia series (2005, 2008 and 2010), as Gabriel in Constantine (Francis Lawrence, 2005) and as The Ancient One in Doctor Strange (Scott Derrickson, 2016) and Avengers: Endgame. Tilda’s talents as a comedy actress really shine through in films including Judd Apatow’s Trainwreck (2015) and most recently Armando Iannucci’s The Personal History of David Copperfield (2019).

For a full list of film’s that will be playing in the season dedicated to the actress, head to BFI Website.

Tilda Swinton will join the likes of Martin Scorsese, Akira Kurosawa, Paul Greengrass and last year’s winner, Olivia Coleman.