Laura Mulvey to Receive Prestigious BFI Fellowship
Laura Mulvey, a distinguished film theorist and director renowned for her groundbreaking essay “Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema,” is set to be honored with a BFI Fellowship.
The award presentation will take place at the BFI Southbank on November 4. In conjunction with the award ceremony, Mulvey will participate in a special “In Conversation” event. Additionally, her filmography will be celebrated with a retrospective season called “Laura Mulvey: Thinking Through Film,” which will be showcased at BFI Southbank during November and December.
Academic and Professional Background
Mulvey currently holds the position of Honorary Professor of Film at the University of St Andrews and is an Emerita Professor of Film and Media Studies and Fellow at Birkbeck College, University of London. She served as the inaugural Director of the Birkbeck Institute for the Moving Image from 2012 to 2015 and has had teaching stints at the University of East Anglia and the BFI. During the 1990s, she was instrumental as the Course Director of a transformative BFI MA program in collaboration with Birkbeck College.
Contributions to Film Literature
Mulvey has authored several influential texts, including the BFI Film Classic on Citizen Kane (1992) and Fetishism and Curiosity (1996, BFI Publishing). Her other notable works are Visual and Other Pleasures (1989); Death 24x a Second: Stillness and the Moving Image (2006); and Afterimages: On Cinema, Women and Changing Times (2019). She has also co-edited volumes such as British Experimental Television (2007); Feminisms (2015); and Other Cinemas: Politics, Culture and British Experimental Film in the 1970s (2017).
Enduring Impact of “Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema”
In 2025, the film community will commemorate the 50th anniversary of “Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema,” Mulvey’s profoundly influential essay. This work continues to be a staple in academic settings, introducing students to feminist film theory. The essay is credited with popularizing the concept of the male gaze, highlighting how classical Hollywood cinema caters to and constructs its narratives for heterosexual male viewers.
BFI’s Tribute to Mulvey
“We’re thrilled to honour Laura Mulvey with the BFI Fellowship,” stated BFI Chair Jay Hunt. “For fifty years, her innovative perspectives have transformed our understanding and appreciation of film. As a British trailblazer and feminist icon, her visionary work has left an indelible mark on cinema and continues to influence globally. The BFI, being the focal point of British cinema, is the perfect venue to celebrate her enduring legacy and to inspire future generations.”
Among the illustrious past recipients of the BFI Fellowship are industry legends such as David Lean, Bette Davis, Akira Kurosawa, Ousmane Sembène, Elizabeth Taylor, Michael Powell, Emeric Pressburger, Orson Welles, Thelma Schoonmaker, Derek Jarman, Martin Scorsese, Satyajit Ray, Yasujirō Ozu, and more recently, Tilda Swinton, Barbara Broccoli, Michael G Wilson, Spike Lee, Christopher Nolan, and Tom Cruise.
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