The British Film Institute has used the London Film Festival to bestow Fellowships – its highest honour – on the London-based American director Tim Burton and his long-term partner, the British actress Helena Bonham Carter.
Burton, whose new film Frankenweenie opened the 56th London Film Festival in Leicester Square tonight, said he felt very touched and grateful for wha the called the “tremendous honour.”
Bonham Carter, whose film Great Expectations closes the festival, said she was “somewhat bewildered.” She said she would accept the honour with deep gratitude, despite not being sure she was deserving.
The couple — who’ve worked together on no fewer than six projects over a little more than a decade, including Planet of the Apes, Sweeney Todd and Alice in Wonderland — will be formally honoured at the awards ceremony at the London Banqueting House towards the end of the festival.