LONDON FILM CRITICS’ CIRCLE HONOUR VISIONARY BRITISH FILM DIRECTOR NICOLAS ROEG

 Britain’s leading film critics have bestowed their highest honour, the Dilys Powell Award for Excellence in Film to veteran film maker Nicolas Roeg, joining the illustrious company of Dirk Bogarde, Richard Attenborough, Julie Walters, Judi Dench, Quentin Tarantino and Kristin Scott Thomas.

Director of films including Performance, Don’t Look Now and The Witches, Roeg has attained legendary status in British film circles, as well as lasting international recognition. Working with Mick Jagger, David Bowie, Julie Christie, Anjelica Houston, Oliver Reed amongst others, his mix of sexual and psychedelic imagery established him as a supreme visual artist, creating films that have been experimental and provocative yet always accessible and unforgettable. In addition Roeg has excelled in all areas of film making, from cinematography to screenwriting, directing, editing and composing. He remains a lasting testament to innovation and individuality in cinema, a director whose films define an era of British cinema yet never seem to go out of style.

Roeg said of the honour: “This award has truly amazed me and certainly caught me a bit left-footed.  I’m sure the critics will understand when I say: on looking through and reading some of my old reviews, I’m torn between thanking you and forgiving you.  But having slept on it, I’ll go with the positive and thank you all and hope that in the countdown for the decision of the ‘Critics’ Circle’ to give me a tribute, some old mathematical rule applied where two negatives can sometimes make a positive.”

Chairman of The Critics’ Circle Film Section, Jason Solomons, added: “Nic Roeg’s films stand out as one of the most distinctive and influential bodies of work of any British film maker. I am thrilled that he can now join the list of illustrious honorees of the Dilys Powell Award for Excellence in Cinema – he adds mischief, daring and brilliance to it, as well as the sort of maverick artistic spirit that only cinema can liberate.”

The award will be presented to Nicolas Roeg at the London Critics’ Circle Film Awards in partnership with Virgin Atlantic on Thursday 19 January at BFI Southbank, where the Critics’ Circle will also reveal its full list of annual award winners at the glittering ceremony. Nominations for all other award categories will be announced on Tuesday 20 December.

The 32^nd annual edition of the London Critics’ Circle Film Awards will again be in aid of their charity partner, the BFI National Archive, to help with the preservation and restoration of British film, in particular Hitchcock’s nine silent features, as part of the BFI’s landmark ‘Rescue the Hitchcock 9’ campaign.