The fellowship will acknowledge the director’s extraordinary achievements and enormous contribution to cinema.
The BFI have announced that it will be celebrating the career of Christopher Nolan with its highest honour, a BFI Fellowship. The fellowship recognises Nolan’s extraordinary achievements and enormous contribution to cinema as one of the world’s most successful and influential film directors, constantly pushing the limits of what large-scale filmmaking can be whilst retaining a reverence for the history of the medium and the primacy of cinema-going.
The fellowship will be presented to the director at the BFI Chair’s Dinner in London on February 14 2024, hosted by BFI Chair Tim Richards. This will be followed on February 15 2024 by an In Conversation event at BFI Southbank and a special introduction to Tenet at BFI IMAX, for which public tickets will be available. During his visit, Christopher Nolan will also visit the BFI National Archive’s Conservation Centre, the international centre of excellence for screen heritage preservation that the BFI operates on behalf of the nation.
Known for films such as Memento, Batman Begins, Inception and Dunkirk, Christopher Nolan’s films have won 11 Academy Awards, enjoyed huge critical acclaim and the respect of his peers, whilst appealing to audiences across the globe and – with over $6.1 billion grossed worldwide. Meanwhile, the release of his latest film Oppenheimer has wowed audiences and grossing over $950 million globally for Universal Pictures, Nolan’s biggest film ever at the UK box office, grossing £58.7 million to date surpassing The Dark Knight and Dunkirk.
Talking about the news, BFI Chair Tim Richards said, “I’m delighted to be honouring and recognising Christopher Nolan with a BFI Fellowship. Christopher Nolan is one of the greatest filmmakers of the 21st century, creating hugely popular movies that have grossed over $6 billion worldwide. His movies are all made for the big screen to challenge and entertain audiences around the world. Christopher’s commitment and support of the Cinema industry is legendary. He has also been at the forefront of preserving celluloid through his involvement with The Film Foundation and his own support via the Morf Foundation for the BFI’s photochemical work. All done to ensure that current and future audiences will be able to continue to enjoy and learn from our incredibly rich history of cinema for many years to come.”
Meanwhile, Christopher Nolan said: “ I am thrilled and honoured to be accepting a BFI Fellowship from an organisation so dedicated to preserving both cinema’s history as well as its future.”
Though he has never won an Academy Award, Christopher Nolan’s personal accolades are numerous and far-reaching. He received the CBE in 2019, has had five Academy Award nominations, five BAFTA nominations, six Golden Globes nominations and, in 2012, he became the youngest director to be honoured with a hand-and-footprint ceremony at Grauman’s Chinese Theatre in Los Angeles. This year he won the NATO Spirit of the Industry award and the Sundance Institute’s first ever Trailblazer Award.
He will be joining the distinguished ranks of other BFI Fellows including David Lean, Bette Davis, Akira Kurosawa, Ousmane Sembène Elizabeth Taylor, Michael Powell, Emeric Pressburger, Orson Welles, Thelma Schoonmaker, Derek Jarman, Martin Scorsese, Satyajit Ray, Yasujirō Ozu and, most recently, Tilda Swinton, Barbara Broccoli, Michael G Wilson and Spike Lee.