The BAFTA Fellowship, or the Academy Fellowship, is a lifetime achievement award presented by the British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) in recognition of "outstanding achievement in the art forms of the moving image". The award is the highest honour the Academy can bestow, and has been awarded annually since 1971. Fellowship recipients have mainly been film directors, but some have been awarded to actors, film/television producers, cinematographers, film editors, screenwriters, and (since 2007) contributors to the video game industry. In 2002, Merchant Ivory Productions became the first organisation to win the award. People from the United Kingdom dominate the list, but it includes over a dozen U.S. citizens and several from other countries in Europe, though none of the latter have been recognized since 1996. In 2010, Shigeru Miyamoto became the first citizen of an Asian country to receive the award.

The inaugural recipient of the award was the filmmaker and producer Alfred Hitchcock. The award has been made posthumously to the comedy pair Morecambe and Wise in 1999, and to Stanley Kubrick, who died that year and was made a fellow in 2000.

Overall, 88 men have won the award, and 17 women. 2012 winner Rolf Harris is the only person to have had the award subsequently annulled.

Recipients

Year	Country of citizenship	Fellow		Contribution	Notes	Ref(s)
1971	United Kingdom		Alfred Hitchcock	Film	Filmmaker and producer
1972	United Kingdom		Freddie Young	Film	Cinematographer
1973	United Kingdom	—	Grace Wyndham Goldie	Television	Producer
1974	United Kingdom		David Lean	Film	Filmmaker, producer, screenwriter and editor
1975	France		Jacques Cousteau	Film	Explorer, ecologist and filmmaker
1976	United Kingdom		Charlie Chaplin	Film	Filmmaker, actor, writer, director, producer, composer and editor
	United Kingdom		Laurence Olivier	Film	Actor, director and producer
1977	United Kingdom	—	Denis Forman	Television	Director and then Chair of the British Film Institute and Granada Television
1978	United States		Fred Zinnemann	Film	Film director
1979	United Kingdom		Lew Grade	Television	Media proprietor
	United Kingdom		Huw Wheldon	Television	Broadcaster and executive
1980	United Kingdom		David Attenborough	Television	Broadcaster and naturalist
	United States		John Huston	Film	Actor, filmmaker and screenwriter
1981	France		Abel Gance	Film	Film director and producer
	United Kingdom		Michael Powell	Film	Film director and member of Powell and Pressburger
	United Kingdom  Hungary		Emeric Pressburger	Film	Screenwriter, film director, producer and member of Powell and Pressburger
1982	Poland		Andrzej Wajda	Film	Film director
1983	United Kingdom		Richard Attenborough	Film	Actor, film director and producer
1984	United Kingdom		Hugh Greene	Television	Journalist and television executive
	Austria		Sam Spiegel	Film	Film producer
1985	United Kingdom	—	Jeremy Isaacs	Television	Television producer and executive
1986	United States		Steven Spielberg	Film	Director, screenwriter and film producer
1987	Italy		Federico Fellini	Film	Director
1988	Sweden		Ingmar Bergman	Film	Director, writer and producer
1989	United Kingdom		Alec Guinness	Film	Actor
1990	United Kingdom	—	Paul Fox	Television	Television executive
1991	France		Louis Malle	Film	Director
1992	United Kingdom		John Gielgud	Film	Actor
	United Kingdom	—	David Plowright	Television	Executive and producer
1993	United Kingdom	—	Sydney Samuelson	Film	First British Film Commissioner
	United States	—	Colin Young	Film	First director of the National Film and Television School
1994	United Kingdom		Michael Grade	Television	Broadcast executive
1995	United States		Billy Wilder	Film	Journalist, filmmaker, screenwriter and producer
1996	France		Jeanne Moreau	Film	Actress, screenwriter and director
	United Kingdom		Ronald Neame	Film	Cinematographer, producer, screenwriter and director
	United Kingdom		John Schlesinger	Film	Film and stage director
	United Kingdom		Maggie Smith	Film	Film, stage and television actress
1997	United States		Woody Allen	Film	Director, screenwriter, actor and playwright
	United States		Steven Bochco	Television	Producer and writer
	United Kingdom		Julie Christie	Film	Actress
	United States	—	Oswald Morris	Film	Cinematographer
	United Kingdom		Harold Pinter	Film	Playwright, screenwriter, actor and director
	United States		David Rose	Television	Songwriter, composer and arranger
1998	United Kingdom		Sean Connery	Film	Actor
	United Kingdom		Bill Cotton	Television	Producer and executive
1999	United Kingdom		Eric Morecambe	Television	Television and stage actor, and member of Morecambe and Wise
	United Kingdom		Ernie Wise	Television	Television and stage actor, and member of Morecambe and Wise
	United Kingdom		Elizabeth Taylor	Film	Actress
2000	United Kingdom		Michael Caine	Film	Actor
	United States		Stanley Kubrick	Film	Filmmaker, screenwriter, producer and photographer
	United Kingdom		Peter Bazalgette	Television	Media expert
2001	United Kingdom		Albert Finney	Film	Actor
	United Kingdom		John Thaw	Television	Actor
	United Kingdom		Judi Dench	Film	Actress
2002	United States		Warren Beatty	Film	Actor, producer, screenwriter and director
	—	—	Merchant Ivory Productions	Film	Founded by director James Ivory and producer Ismail Merchant First organisation to win the award
	United Kingdom		Andrew Davies	Television	Author and screenwriter
	United Kingdom	—	John Mills	Film	Actor
2003	United States		Saul Zaentz	Film	Producer
	United Kingdom		David Jason	Television	Actor
2004	United Kingdom		John Boorman	Film	Filmmaker
	United States	—	Roger Graef	Film	Filmmaker
2005	United Kingdom		John Barry	Film	Composer
	United Kingdom		David Frost	Television	Writer, journalist and presenter
2006	United Kingdom		David Puttnam	Film	Producer
	United Kingdom		Ken Loach	Television	Film and television director
2007	United Kingdom		Anne V. Coates	Film	Film editor
	United Kingdom		Richard Curtis	Film	Screenwriter, music producer, actor and film director
	United States		Will Wright	Games	Designer and co-founder of Maxis
2008	United Kingdom		Anthony Hopkins	Film	Film, stage and television actor
	United Kingdom		Bruce Forsyth	Television	Entertainer and presenter
2009	United Kingdom		Dawn French	Television	Actress, writer, comedian and member of French and Saunders
	United Kingdom		Jennifer Saunders	Television	Actress, screenwriter, comedian and member of French and Saunders
	United Kingdom		Terry Gilliam	Film	Writer, filmmaker, animator and member of Monty Python
	United States		Nolan Bushnell	Games	Engineer, founder of Atari, Inc.
2010	United Kingdom		Vanessa Redgrave	Film	Actress
	Japan		Shigeru Miyamoto	Games	Game designer at Nintendo, most notable for the Super Mario and The Legend of Zelda series
	United Kingdom		Melvyn Bragg	Television	Author and broadcaster
2011	United Kingdom		Christopher Lee	Film	Actor and musician
	United Kingdom		Peter Molyneux	Games	Designer
	United Kingdom  Trinidad and Tobago	—	Trevor McDonald	Television	Newsreader and presenter
2012	United States		Martin Scorsese	Film	Film director and producer
	Australia		Rolf Harris	Television	Artist, musician and television presenter (Harris's Fellowship was annulled on 30 June 2014 following his criminal conviction)
2013	United Kingdom		Alan Parker	Film	Director and screenwriter
	United States		Gabe Newell	Games	Developer and co-founder of Valve
	United Kingdom		Michael Palin	Television	Comedian, actor, writer, presenter and member of Monty Python
2014	United Kingdom		Helen Mirren	Film	Actress
	United Kingdom  United States		Rockstar Games	Games	Developer and publisher, most notable for the Grand Theft Auto series (accepted by Dan Houser, Sam Houser, Leslie Benzies, and Aaron Garbut)
	United Kingdom		Julie Walters	Television	Actress
2015	United Kingdom		Mike Leigh	Film	Writer and director
	United Kingdom		David Braben	Games	Programmer and designer, founder of Frontier Developments
	United Kingdom		Jon Snow	Television	Journalist and presenter
2016	United States  Bahamas		Sidney Poitier	Film	Actor and director
	United States		John Carmack	Games	Programmer, virtual reality engineer, co-founder of id Software
	United Kingdom		Ray Galton	Television	Comedy writers
	United Kingdom		Alan Simpson
2017	United States		Mel Brooks	Film	Actor, comedian and filmmaker
	United Kingdom		Joanna Lumley	Television	Actress
2018	United Kingdom		Ridley Scott	Film	Director and producer
	United States		Tim Schafer	Games	Game designer, founder of Double Fine
	United Kingdom		Kate Adie	Television	Journalist
2019	United States		Thelma Schoonmaker	Film	Film editor
	United Kingdom		Joan Bakewell	Television	Journalist and broadcaster
2020	United States		Kathleen Kennedy	Film	Producer, president of Lucasfilm since 2012
	Japan		Hideo Kojima	Games	Game designer, most notable for the Metal Gear series, founder of Kojima Productions
2021	United Kingdom		Siobhan Reddy	Games	Studio director of Media Molecule since 2009
	Taiwan		Ang Lee	Film	Director, screenwriter and producer
2022	United Kingdom		Billy Connolly	Television	Actor, comedian, artist, writer, musician and presenter
2023	United Kingdom		Sandy Powell	Film	Costume designer
	Japan		Shuhei Yoshida	Games	Game designer and former president of Sony Interactive Entertainment
	United Kingdom		Meera Syal	Television	Screenwriter, producer and actor
2024	United Kingdom		Samantha Morton	Film	Actress
	United Kingdom		Floella Benjamin	Television	Actress, presenter, author, and politician