Bradford luanches 15th annual film festival (From Bradford Telegraph and Argus)

Bradford luanches 15th annual film festival

5:40pm Wednesday 25th February 2009 in

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British screen legend Virginia McKenna CBE will receive the Lifetime Achievement Award at this year’s Bradford International Film Festival.

Described in the programme as an “English rose – with thorns of steel”, her career seemed to be of less importance to her after starring with Bill Travers in Born Free in 1966.

The film, directed by Bradford-born James Hill, is a biopic of Kenyan game warden George Adamson and his wife Joy and how they adopted three female lion cubs.

Virginia McKenna became deeply interested in conservation and animal welfare.

Before Born Free she had starred in films such as A Town Like Alice (1956), The Smallest Show on Earth (1957) and Carve Her Name With Pride (1958), alongside Peter Finch, Peter Sellers and Paul Scofield, respectively.

Tony Earnshaw, the festival’s artistic director, said: “It’s all very well focusing on the latest bright young thing– there’s nothing wrong with that – but what do you talk about?

“Experience informs a lot of the guests whom we have honoured in the past, people who have been in the industry for half a century.

“They’ve worked with everybody and their work is informed by their experiences.

“That is precisely the case with Virginia McKenna.

“She’ll be receiving the Lifetime Achievement Award on March 13 and the following night she’ll be talking to me on stage at Pictureville.

“One of the central areas of our conversation will be why she made a life-changing decision to stop being a movie star.

“I think she was unique because in Carve Her Name With Pride and A Town Like Alice she was tackling gutsy roles a lot of actresses would have run scared of.

“As well as playing some of her classic roles we are also showing her latest film, a five-minute short, which she made at the age of 77.”

Documentary-maker Peter White-head will receive a Fellowship Award for his contribution to film as a writer, producer and director.

“The films he made about London in the Sixties epitomise the idea of the maverick and pioneer,” said Mr Earnshaw.

“These films are masterpieces because they have a quintessentially British perspective. Peter is the first independent film-maker to receive the award.”

The 15th Bradford International Film Festival runs from March 13-28 at the National Media Museum.

Virginia McKenna can be seen on stage at Picturevile Cinema in conversation with Tony Earnshaw on Saturday, March 14, starting at 7pm.

For tickets call 0870-70-10-200.