GILBERT AWARDED FELLOWSHIP BY BFI

BRITISH Film Institute (bfi) Vice Chair, Rick Senat, awarded the 53rd bfi fellowship to the distinguished and prolific director Lewis Gilbert at a special screening gala on April 30.
Gilbert has been directing and producing some of Britain’s finest cinema for nearly six decades. He became a director during the Second World War, a period which later inspired some of his best work, films like ‘Reach for the Sky’ and ‘Carve her Name with Pride’.
During the nineties he turned the collaboration with the playwright Willy Russell into an extraordinary worldwide phenomenon; ‘Educating Rita’ was a huge hit in 1983 and ‘Shirley Valentine’ in 1989. At the moment Gilbert is working on his latest project ‘The Memory of Water’, an adaption of the award winning play by Sheila Stephenson.
Jon Teckman, bfi Director, said: “I am delighted that the bfi recognises Lewis Gilbert’s hugely varied contribution across six decades of British cinema ranging from musicals, comedy and drama through to some of the biggest action spectaculars ever committed to film.”
The accolade is bestowed on individuals from around the world in recognition of their outstanding contribution to film and television culture. Previous recipients have included diverse talents such as Orson Welles, Fred Zinnemann, Akira Kurosawa, Clint Eastwood, Elizabeth Taylor and many others. (CD)