Birkbeck's Professor Laura Mulvey Becomes First Academic to Receive BFI Fellowship
The Fellowship recognises the huge global impact of Professor Mulvey's ground-breaking work as a film theorist, filmmaker and curator.
Professor Laura Mulvey, Emerita Professor of Film and Media Studies and College Fellow at Birkbeck, University of London, has been awarded a British Film Institute (BFI) Fellowship - the first time the prestigious honour has been bestowed upon an academic.
Previous recipients of the honour include Tom Cruise, Sir Kenneth Branagh and Dame Judi Dench, placing Professor Mulvey among the most celebrated figures in British and international film culture.
The award comes as the BFI marks the 50th anniversary of Professor Mulvey's seminal essay Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema, one of the most influential pieces of film scholarship ever published. The essay fundamentally changed the way cinema is understood and continues to shape film studies globally. To celebrate this milestone, the BFI is running a major season throughout 2025 dedicated to Professor Mulvey’s work and legacy, with her fellowship awarded on Tuesday 4 November at the BFI venue at London's southbank.
On receiving the Fellowship, Professor Mulvey said: “[The Fellowship] recognises film education, an original BFI commitment in 1933, through its first Fellowship to an academic.”
Professor Mulvey's connection to both Birkbeck and the BFI has been transformational for film education in the UK. As founding Director of the Birkbeck Institute for the Moving Image (BIMI) from 2012 to 2015, she established Birkbeck as a leading centre for film research and practice. In the 1990s, she served as the first Course Director of the pioneering BFI MA partnership with Birkbeck, which emphasised work experience through placements across all key BFI departments. Later, she inaugurated the MA Film Programming and Curating course, the first of its kind. These innovative programmes have influenced the BFI's advocacy for education about film and its impact on society, and they have educated generations of BFI staff who have gone on to reach senior positions within the institution.
Professor Mulvey's unique contribution lies in her practice-based approach, combining rigorous theoretical scholarship with filmmaking and curatorial work. This methodology has not only transformed film studies as an academic discipline but has demonstrated the vital role of universities in shaping public understanding of cinema and visual culture.
As Emerita Professor of Film and Media Studies and College Fellow at Birkbeck, Professor Mulvey continues to inspire new generations of scholars and filmmakers, cementing Birkbeck's reputation as a world-leading institution for film and media research.