Steve McQueen to receive top BFI honors

Director, writer and producer Steve McQueen will be awarded the British Film Institute's BFI Fellowship, the establishment's highest honor, reports Variety.

McQueen will receive the award on October 15 at London's Banqueting House during the BFI London Film Festival's awards ceremony. Festival organizers say the fellowship is being awarded to McQueen for his "outstanding contribution" to film culture.

McQueen's "12 Years a Slave" won three Academy Awards in 2013, including Best Picture, while "Hunger" (2008) won the Camera d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival and actor Michael Fassbender won Best Actor for "Shame" (2011) at the Venice Film Festival.

Previous winners of the BFI Fellowship include Cate Blanchett, Tim Burton, Helena Bonham Carter, Ralph Fiennes and, most recently, Hugh Grant.