DR JUNE GIVANNI RECEIVES bafta outstanding british contribution to cinema award
We are incredibly proud to announce that Dr June Givanni, the pioneering film curator, writer and programmer of African and African diaspora cinema, founder and director of The June Givanni PanAfrican Archive, will be presented with BAFTA’s Outstanding British Contribution to Cinema Award at the EE BAFTA Film Awards on Sunday 18 February 2024.
This Special Award, one of BAFTA’s highest accolades, is presented to an individual or organisation that has made a significant and inspiring contribution to film through a particular project or work – with focus on recognising work that might not otherwise be eligible in BAFTA’s competitive awards’ categories. It will be presented to June Givanni during the EE BAFTAs’ ceremony at the Southbank Centre’s Royal Festival Hall, as part of a commemoration of her work to-date.
Jane Millichip, CEO of BAFTA said: “June has been a pioneering force in the preservation, study and celebration of African and African Diaspora cinema and Black British cultural heritage. The June Givanni PanAfrican Cinema Archive, developed over forty years, is now one of the world’s most important time capsules of the ideas, stories and creative output of an essential part of British and global film history, and a valuable resource for inspiring future generations. We are so pleased to be able to shine a light on June’s work at the EE BAFTA Film Awards next month, including her extraordinary archive and the filmmakers and stories within it.”
Givanni, said: “I was shocked and am honoured to receive such recognition from BAFTA for work that I have been privileged to be able to do with some of the most inspired and inspiring people in the world of cinema generally and Pan African cinema and culture in particular; especially with the energies of the younger generation of thinkers, curators and artists who bring dynamic energies to working with, and discovering, the archives of the moving image from a pre-digital age. We are also grateful for the support of the Freelands Foundation who have given us some crucial Space to Dream. Thank you.”
BAFTA presents Fellowships and Special Awards to individuals who have made a significant and inspiring contribution to the screen arts year-round. Recent Special Award recipients include: Meera Syal, David Olusoga, Shonda Rhimes, Alison Barnett, Shuhei Yoshida, Sandy Powell, Triple C and Sir Billy Connolly. Previous Outstanding British Contribution to Cinema recipients, first awarded in 1979, include Andy Serkis, Stephen Woolley and Elizabeth Karlson, the National Film and Television School, Curzon, Angels Costumes and BBC Films.
The EE BAFTA Film Awards will be hosted by David Tennant and broadcast on BBC One and BBC iPlayer, and syndicated internationally via Britbox International in nine countries including the US and Canada, and a host of other territories to be confirmed.
Follow the action via #EEBAFTAs.