On Saturday, people from the film fraternity gathered at the U.K. capital’s grand Banqueting House for BFI London Film Festival’s award ceremony.
The award for the best film went to Kelly Reichardt’s “Certain Women” starring Kristen Stewart, Laura Dern, and Michelle Williams. The award was announced by Athina Rachel Tsangari, whose drama Chevalier had won it last year.
As reported by The Hollywood Reporter,
“Other prizes went to Julia Ducournau for her French cannibalism horror Raw, which claimed the Sutherland award for the first feature, and Iranian filmmaker Mehrdad Oskouei’s Starless Dreams, which took home the the Grierson award for best documentary.”
But that was not it. The event ended on a special note as Steve McQueen got BFI Fellowship, the British Film Institute’s highest honor and a standing ovation for his contribution to the British cinema.
Michael Fassbender gave a speech before calling McQueen on stage and describing the actor as a “provocateur, a voyeur, a Londoner and a geezer”.
Referring to McQueen, Fassbender added that he counted himself blessed to have worked “under the tutelage of one of the cinema’s all-time greats.”
McQueen attributed his success to free University education and said,
“I had freedom because society allowed me to have that freedom,” he said. “It seems that that freedom is being slowly eradicated. It’s our job to fight to keep those doors open.”
It was indeed a special event.
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