The big news is that John Hurt, the legendary British actor, will be visiting Bradford to accept the BIFF Lifetime Achievement Award, for his luminary acting work across nearly five decades of films—the likes of 10 Rillington Place, Midnight Express, The Elephant Man, 1984, Scandal and Alien (all of which are showing during the festival, among other Hurt films).
Previous Lifetime Achievement Award winners include Ken Loach, Richard Attenborough, Michael Palin and the late Jean Simmons; Hurt joins hallowed company.
Additionally, prestigious director Nicolas Roeg will also be joining us to accept a Fellowship Award for films such as Eureka, Don’t Look Now and his most recent film Puffball (again, we’re showing these as part of the 11-day festival).
And that’s not all—we’ve got venerable British actress Imelda Staunton and Brazilian director Fernando Meirelles joining us too.
Most importantly for the Bradford and West Yorkshire community, we celebrate Bradford’s UNESCO “City of Film” status as the film festival expands out of the museum to take in ten other local venues, each with its own exclusive programme.
So we welcome our new friends at Cineworld Bradford; Bradford Playhouse; Hyde Park Picture House in Leeds; Markaz Restaurant, Bradford; Victoria Hall in Saltaire; Ilkley Playhouse; Hebden Bridge Picture House; Otley Courthouse; Pocklington Arts Centre; and Leeds Trinity University College to the festival—we’re sure it’ll be a great relationship.
More on BIFF throughout the lead-up to the festival launch on 18 March 2010—keep an eye on Twitter.