Christopher Nolan - Credit- Magnus Nolan

Source: Magnus Nolan

Christopher Nolan

Christopher Nolan will receive the British Film Institute’s highest honour, the BFI Fellowship, in 2024.

The Fellowship will be presented to Nolan at the BFI Chair’s dinner in London on February 14, 2024, hosted by BFI Chair Tim Richards.

Nolan will then participate in an In Conversation event at the BFI Southbank and a special introduction to his 2020 film Tenet at the BFI Imax – both on February 15, and with public tickets available.

The UK filmmaker will also visit the BFI National Archive’s Conservation Centre, the centre of excellence for screen heritage preservation operated by the BFI.

“I am thrilled and honoured to be accepting a BFI Fellowship from an organisation so dedicated to preserving both cinema’s history as well as its future,” said Nolan.

Nolan’s films have grossed over $6bn worldwide, from his low-budget feature debut Following in 1998, through his Dark Knight trilogy from 2005 to 2012, to Oppenheimer, the second highest-grossing film of the year in the UK and Ireland with £58.7m and Nolan’s biggest title in the territory. He has scored hits with original films including Memento, Inception and Interstellar, plus historical dramas such as Dunkirk.

Oppenheimer will return to the BFI Imax in January 2024, after a record-breaking run there throughout summer this year with six screenings a day selling out for several weeks.

“Christopher Nolan is one of the greatest filmmakers of the 21stcentury, creating hugely popular movies…[that] are all made for the big screen to challenge and entertain audiences around the world,” said Richards. 

“Christopher’s commitment and support of the Cinema industry is legendary. He has also been at the forefront of preserving celluloid through his involvement with The Film Foundation and his own support via the Morf Foundation for the BFI’s photochemical work. All done to ensure that current and future audiences will be able to continue to enjoy and learn from our incredibly rich history of cinema for many years to come.”

Previously awarded BFI Fellows include David Lean, Bette Davis, Akira Kurosawa, Elizabeth Taylor, Martin Scorsese and Spike Lee.