Bradford International Film Festival today announced that it will be presenting John Hurt with its annual Lifetime Achievement Award at the 16th edition of the Festival in March this year.
John Hurt will be attending the Festival to receive the award, take part in a live on-stage Screentalk interview at the National Media Museum and also to host a retrospective of his work.
10 films, representing the very best work in a career spanning almost 50 years, will play during the 11-day run of the Festival, 18 - 28 March 2010 at the Museum and venues across Bradford and Yorkshire.
The films include John Huston’s Sinful Davey, 10 Rillington Place, Alan Parker’s Midnight Express, David Lynch’s The Elephant Man, 1984, Scandal, Love and Death on Long Island, Jim Sheridan’s The Field, Shooting Dogs and Ridley Scott’s seminal sci-fi shocker Alien in glorious 70mm.
Hurt follows in the footsteps of an impressive array of Lifetime Achievement Award recipients at the Bradford International Film Festival, including Ken Loach, Richard Attenborough and the late Jean Simmons.
John Hurt commented, "I am absolutely delighted to be receiving a Lifetime Achievement Award at Bradford International Film Festival this year.
"It is a Festival that I have long admired for its eclectic mix of films and innovative programming and am very much looking forward to visiting the world’s first City of Film in March."
Nicolas Roeg will be receiving the prestigious Fellowship Award which honours a practitioner of film. Roeg is a legendary filmmaker with 60 years experience behind the camera as a director, cinematographer and writer.
A selection of his films will be shown during the Festival and will include, Eureka, Don’t Look Now and his most recent film Puffball.
Joining fellow Brits John Hurt and Nicolas Roeg in Bradford this year, which was awarded the title of the world’s first UNESCO City of Film, is award-winning actress Imelda Staunton.
Ms Staunton will also be taking part in a Screentalk and discussing her amazing success as a British character actress, her ongoing collaboration with the acclaimed director Mike Leigh and her varied career which has straddled all acting disciplines.
There will be another chance at the Festival to see her at her Oscar-nominated best in Vera Drake for which she won the BAFTA in 2005 for best actress.
Complementing the strong line-up of British guests at the Festival this year is Brazilian director Fernando Meirelles. He adds a truly international flavour to the Festival and will be in Bradford to support his first-ever UK retrospective.
The Festival will be screening all of his English language films including The Constant Gardener, Blindness and the utterly compelling City of God.
Meirelles will be attending the Festival to support these screenings but also to take part in an on-stage Screentalk interview.
Artistic Director Tony Earnshaw said, "I am thrilled with our line-up of Retrospectives, Award Winners and Screentalks and know that our audiences are going to be delighted with the broad range of films available during the Festival this year."
This year the Festival will be screening films at venues throughout Bradford and Yorkshire including BIFF’s home for the last 15 years, the National Media Museum.
The Museum will remain the hub of the festival, where its unique facilities make it possible to present films in every format from 16mm, 35mm and 70mm to 3-strip Cinerama and IMAX 3D.
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