Samantha Morton Takes Home Highest Accolade at the 2024 EE BAFTA Film Awards

Samantha Morton was awarded the BAFTA Fellowship last night at the 2024 EE BAFTA Awards, where she was honored for her decades-spanning career in film and television.

The BAFTA Fellowship is the arts charity's highest accolade and acts as a recognition of an outstanding and exceptional contribution to film, games or television.

Previous recipients include Alfred Hitchcock, Charlie Chaplin, Steven Spielberg, Sir Sidney Poitier, Martin Scorsese, Helen Mirren, Elizabeth Taylor, Sir Ridley Scott, Thelma Schoonmaker and Ang Lee.

During Morton's highly emotional acceptance speech, she said, "For me, this is really nothing short of a miracle". Attributing seeing Ken Loach's Kes as a pivotal point for her, Morton said she was "forever changed" by it, going on to give her reasoning as "seeing poverty and people like me, my life and my family on the screen, I recognized myself. See, representation matters".

Morton has worked with some of the industry's top directors, from Darren Aronofsky to Lynne Ramsay to Steven Spielberg. During her speech, she thanked them, along with the casting directors "who believed in [her] enough to put [her] in front of some of the world's great directors".

Chair of BAFTA's Film Committee, Anna Higgs, called Morton "a mesmerizing storyteller with incredible range" who has "made an extraordinary impact on the British film industry".

During the winner's press conference, Morton praised the year in film, saying, "We've had an amazing year for film", listing Past Lives, The Zone of Interest, Oppenheimer and Anatomy of a Fall as some of the many highlights.