In March the magnetic actor will be awarded BFI Fellowship, and a season dedicated to her extraordinary work will begin at BFI Southbank
Since her first appearance on screen, in Derek Jarman’s 1986 film Caravaggio, Tilda Swinton has featured in some of cinema’s most lauded, experimental and enduring roles. The British Film Institute has announced this week that Swinton will receive a Fellowship in March, an accolade that will coincide with the launch of a season dedicated to the actor and filmmaker’s work.
Swinton joins an impressive roster of BFI Fellows, including Jarman, who she collaborated with frequently until his death in 1994, Bernardo Bertolucci, Judi Dench, Isabelle Huppert, Nicolas Roeg, Jeanne Moreau, and Steve McQueen. “Fellowship and BFI are two of my favourite words,” the actor and former AnOther cover star says. “And the beginning and end of the reason I live my life in the cinema in the first place. I am very happy and touched by this honour. And I share it entirely with my beloved filmmaking playmates, living and departed.”
“Tilda inhabits the characters she portrays in the most compelling way. Her work is powerful and far-ranging and as such occupies a unique place in our collective film history; it captivates young filmmakers and actors, inspiring them to make bolder, braver and more profound work,” Josh Berger, the BFI chair, says.
The BFI’s Tilda Swinton season will run throughout March, and feature screenings of a wide selection of her films, from early works like Jarman’s Caravaggio and The Garden, and Sally Potter’s Orlando to I Am Love (from director Luca Guadagnino, another of Swinton’s regular collaborators), Jim Jarmusch’s Only Lovers Left Alive and Bong Joon-ho’s Snowpiercer. Swinton’s latest film hits cinemas this month: Armando Iannucci’s adaption of the Charles Dickens classic novel The Personal History of David Copperfield, in which the actor stars alongside Dev Patel, Hugh Laurie and Ben Whishaw.
BFI Southbank’s season dedicated to Tilda Swinton will run from March 1 – 18, 2020.
