page_title: British Film Institute Fellowship
section_title: Fellows
hierarchical_section_title: British Film Institute Fellowship / Fellows
caption_attribution_description: Orson Welles, photographed by Carl Van Vechten, March 1, 1937.
context_page_description: The British Film Institute is a charitable organisation established in 1933, based in the United Kingdom. It has awarded its Fellowship title to individuals in "recognition of their outstanding contribution to film or television culture" and is considered the highest accolade presented by the Institute: British actor John Hurt said the award was "the highest honour possible".
  The first awards were made in 1983, the same year as BFI National Archive's Silver Jubilee and the BFI's fiftieth anniversary, and as of January 2020, there are 87 Fellows. Awards are not presented every year, but every award ceremony has been held in London, on occasion at the National Film Theatre as part of the BFI London Film Festival. The inaugural ceremony honoured six recipients of the Fellowship: French film director Marcel Carné, British film directors David Lean, Michael Powell, Hungarian screenwriter Emeric Pressburger, Indian film-maker Satyajit Ray and American director and actor Orson Welles. The most recent Fellowship was bestowed in 2020 on longtime British Film Institute chief executive Amanda Nevill.
caption: American Orson Welles was one of the six inaugural recipients of the Fellowship in 1983.
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