With award season about to start, I’ve just been sent over a press release about the BAFTAs.
It’s nothing to do with who is being nominated but who is getting the BAFTA fellowship for this year.
The list of past recipients read like a who who of film “royalty”. This list includes luminaries such as Charlie Chaplin, Alfred Hitchcock, Steven Spielberg, Sean Connery, Elizabeth Taylor, Stanley Kubrick, Anthony Hopkins, Laurence Olivier, Judi Dench, Vanessa Redgrave, Christopher Lee, Martin Scorsese as well as last year’s recipient, Sir Alan Parker.
Over her long carrer, Dame Helen, has managed to collect four BAFTAs with a further seven nominations. Not only that she has also manged to win an Academy Award in 2007 for her portrayal of Queen Elizabeth in The Queen. She has also managed to collect three Golden Globes and four Emmy Awards over her long career.
Her career started in the 1960s with roles in films such as Michael Powell’s Age of Consent and O Lucky Man! However her breakthrough role came in 1980 with a role in John Mackenzie’s The Long Good Friday. She continued to make films throughout the 80s including Excaliber, Cal and The Madness of King George, for which her performance was both BAFTA and Oscar-nominated. She is the only actor to have taken on the role of both Queen Elizabeth I and II on the screen, and it was her portrayal of Queen Elizabeth II in the 2006 film The Queen that saw her awarded with a BAFTA, a Golden Globe and an Academy Award for Best Actress.
Mirren’s career is a model of how to balance box office success with critical acclaim, having ranged from Calendar Girls, Red and Monster’s University to The Cook, The Thief, His Wife & Her Lover, Gosford Park and The Last Station. In 2003, she received a damehood for services to the performing arts.
Mirren has also enjoyed a successful career in television, particularly as Jane Tennison in the Prime Suspect series, a role for which she has been awarded three BAFTAs. The mini series Elizabeth I, in which she played the titular role, was awarded a BAFTA, three Golden Globes and nine Emmys, as well as several other prestigious accolades.
The EE British Academy Film Awards will take place on 16 February at The Royal Opera House in London’s Covent Garden. Stephen Fry will be returning to host this year’s ceremony, which will be broadcast exclusively on BBC One in the UK and in all major territories around the world. On the night, www.bafta.org will also feature red carpet highlights, photography and winners interviews, as well as dedicated coverage on its social networks including Facebook (/BAFTA), Twitter (@BAFTA / #EEBAFTAs), Tumblr and Instagram.
