Goldsmiths University Oscar-winning alumnus Steve McQueen is set to receive a prestigious BFI Fellowship.

The Turner Prize-winning video artist and filmmaker will receive British film’s highest accolade at the BFI London Film Festival’s annual awards ceremony at Banqueting House on Saturday, October 15.

Previous recipients have included Cate Blanchett last year, Stephen Frears in 2014, Sir Christopher Lee in 2013, Tim Burton and Helena Bonham Carter in 2012 and David Cronenberg and Ralph Fiennes in 2011.

BFI chairman Josh Berger said: “As winner of both the Turner Prize and an Academy Award®, Steve is pre-eminent in the world of film and the moving image.

“He is one of the most influential and important British artists of the past 25 years and his work, both short and long-form, has consistently explored the endurance of humanity - even when it is confronted by inhumane cruelty - with a poetry and visual style that he has made his own.

“We are thrilled that Steve is to become a BFI Fellow.”

McQueen’s mainstream output is the definition of quality over quantity. He has released just three feature length films – Hunger (2008), Shame (2011) and 12 Years a Slave (2013) but all of them have been critical smashes.

Hunger won the Camera d’Or at 2008’s Cannes Film Festival while Shame, which also starred Michael Fassbender, won two Best Film awards at Venice Film Festival as well as a best actor for its star.

His latest offering adapted from a memoir by Solomon Northup, 12 Years a Slave, won three Oscars including for Best Picture.

Now 46, McQueen made his first films at Goldsmiths in New Cross, where he graduated with a BA in Fine Art in 1993. Six years later he won the Turner Prize, the highest accolade for a visual artist, and was also appointed the Official War Artist for the Iraq War by the Imperial War Museum.

The filmmaker said: “I first walked into the BFI library and cinema 28 years ago. To think that I will now be a Fellow and honorary member, with such a distinguished list of people, is mind-blowing. I’m humbly honoured.”

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