Ang Lee To Receive The BAFTA Fellowship

This weekend the British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) are set to honour multiple BAFTA award-winning filmmaker Ang Lee. The Taiwanese filmmaker is set to receive the BAFTA Fellowship at the 74th EE British Academy Film Awards on Sunday (11th April).

Lee is one of the world’s most pioneering and revered contemporary filmmakers whose ground-breaking films are highly acclaimed spanning multiple genres throughout his producing, writing and directing career. He is also a four time BAFTA winner with his films Sense And Sensibility, Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon and Brokeback Mountain. Brokeback he also won the Best director Oscar as with Life Of Pi.

The Fellowship is the highest accolade bestowed by BAFTA upon an individual in recognition of an outstanding and exceptional contribution to film, games or television. Awarded daily which has been given previously to Charlie Chaplin, Alfred Hitchcock, Steven Spielberg, Sean Connery, Elizabeth Taylor, Stanley Kubrick, Anthony Hopkins, Laurence Olivier, Judi Dench, Vanessa Redgrave, Christopher Lee, Martin Scorsese, Alan Parker, Helen Mirren, Sidney Poitier, Mel Brooks, Sir Ridley Scott and Thelma Schoonmaker. Kathleen Kennedy received the Fellowship at last year’s Film Awards.

Lee rose to prominence in the 1990s with his Father Knows Best comedy trilogy consisting of Pushing Hands, The Wedding Banquet and Eat Drink Man Woman, all of which he co-wrote, produced and directed.

These films received acclaim in the US and internationally, with The Wedding Banquet winning the Golden Bear at the Berlin International Film Festival.

He repeated the Berlin Golden Bear. win the following year with his first English language film, Sense and Sensibility. The film also received major accolades including his first BAFTA Film Award for Best Film.

In 2000, Lee produced and directed the martial arts action-adventure Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, one of his most critically acclaimed successes. The film holds the record for the highest grossing foreign language film in US history.

Related: Noel Clarke Set To Be Honoured At 2021 EE British Academy Film Awards

Five years later, Lee was back on the global stage with his ground-breaking LGBTQ+ love story Brokeback Mountain starring Jake Gyllenhaal and the late Heath Ledger. Winning four BAFTAs: Best Film, Director, Adapted Screenplay and Actor in a Supporting Role. He also won Best Director at the Oscars®.

Lee once again broke new ground with the visually stunning 3D CGI epic Life of Pi, his most successful film to date, the film grossed over $600 million worldwide and garnered further awards recognition

His other directing credits include Lust, Caution, Taking Woodstock, Hulk, Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk and most recently, Gemini Man.

Ang Lee commented: “England has been particularly good to me in my career, especially with Sense and Sensibility, which was like a second film school for me. It’s a tremendous honour to receive the Bafta Academy Fellowship and be counted among such brilliant filmmakers.”

The 74th EE British Academy Film Awards will take place on 10th and 11th April. Ang Lee will receive his Fellowship on Sunday 11th April and you can watch both nights on the BBC.