The US has got Nick Nolte, Jeff Bridges and Brian Dennehy... we’ve got Ray Winstone.”

So says Neil Young, co-director of Bradford International Film Festival, about this year’s special guest.

The popular British actor will be the subject of a Ray Winstone Retrospective, reflecting a career spanning more than 30 years starting with his seminal central role in Alan Clarke’s 1979 borstal drama Scum.

Festival screenings of his films include Ladies and Gentlemen and the Fabulous Stains, a rare showing of the cult film featuring Winstone as the lead singer in a punk band featuring former Sex Pistols Steve Jones and Paul Cook, and Paul Simonon from The Clash. Other screenings include Sexy Beast, starring Winstone as a retired safe-cracker strong-armed into doing one last job; Beowulf, featuring his motion-captured performance in the title role; and the multi-award winning, Nil by Mouth, Gary Oldman’s searing semi-autobiographical portrayal of a south London family terrorised by an alcoholic husband, played by Winstone.

“When you look back through the films and TV he’s made over the last five decades and all the outstanding directors he’s worked with – Scorsese, Spielberg, Minghella, Loach, Zemeckis, and all the way back to Alan Clarke – you start to realise what a unique contribution this man has made to our culture in general and to film in particular,” says Neil Young.

“Ray is currently on the crest of a wave, so it’s an ideal time to salute and recognise one of the most reliably excellent actors working anywhere in the world today.”

Ray Winstone’s Screentalk is on Saturday, April 1.

The festival is also celebrating the career of animation giant Chuck Jones.

Marking the centenary of the birth of the legendary director – the man behind some of the greatest moments in Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies cartoons, following the adventures of Bugs Bunny, Elmer Fudd, Road Runner and Daffy Duck – are screenings including Road Runner’s first outing in Fast and Furryous and Duck Dodgers in the 24½th Century.

Jones was at the forefront of Warner Brothers’ ‘golden era’ of animation, and BIFF will be screening 20 of his shorts throughout the festival. They include What’s Opera, Doc?, Duck Amuck and One Froggy Evening, voted some of the best cartoons of all time.

Jen Skinner, film education officer at the National Media Museum, said: “Chuck Jones has entertained countless children around the world with some of the most entertainingly anarchic cartoon characters ever produced.

“We are paying tribute to him at this year’s festival and, who knows, we could be inspiring the next animation legend with some of our free family workshops.”

In addition to specially selected medleys of Jones’s films, BIFF’s family weekend events – on April 21 and 22 and April 28 and 29 – feature activities for all ages inspired by the animator’s delightful sense of entertainment.

Free drop-in family workshops include Looney Tunes Sound Effects and Cartoon Creations, allowing visitors bring their own animated characters to life.