Wonderful news this morning as we have had to wait a while but finally, BAFTA are to honour Andy Serkis with the Outstanding British Contribution to Cinema award at the 2020 ceremony.

The actor, producer, director and founder of The Imaginarium will receive one of BAFTA’s highest honours, which is presented annually in honour of Michael Balcon, the British film producer known for his work with Ealing Studios. Elizabeth Karlsen and Stephen Woolley, co-founders of Number 9 Films, were the recipients at 2019’s Film Awards. Previous recipients include Ridley and Tony Scott, Film4 Productions and Working Title Films.

Andy Serkis commented: “I’m deeply honoured and thrilled to receive this award, and count myself extremely lucky to be on such a continually fascinating journey in visual storytelling, one that has given me the opportunity to collaborate with many of the world’s greatest artists, technologists and craftspeople, with whom I’d like to share this wonderful accolade.”

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Through the creation of such characters as Gollum in the ‘Lord of the Rings’ and ‘Hobbit’ series, Caesar in the ‘Planet of the Apes’ trilogy, the titular gorilla in 2005’s ‘King Kong’, and as Supreme Leader Snoke in the recent ‘Star Wars’ trilogy, Serkis has both pioneered the evolving art of performance capture and widened the parameters of what it means to be an actor in the 21st century. As a leading actor in performance-capture, Serkis has been integral to the development of this remarkable digital technology, which allows filmmakers to bring to life amazing characters that would otherwise have been almost impossible to accurately recreate onscreen.

Serkis has been BAFTA nominated twice, once for playing Ian Dury in ‘Sex and Drugs and Rock and Roll’, and for playing Ian Brady on television in ‘Longford’.

The EE British Academy Film Awards take place on Sunday 2 February 2020 at the Royal Albert Hall. The ceremony will be hosted by Graham Norton and will be broadcast exclusively on BBC One, BBC One HD and BBC iPlayer.