Martin Scorsese, Christopher Nolan to felicitate Amitabh Bachchan with FIAF award

Megastar Amitabh Bachchan will be honoured with The International Federation of Film Archives (FIAF) and will become the first Indian celebrity to receive the award for his contribution to the preservation of the world’s film heritage. The event is set to take place virtually on March 19. According to Variety, iconic filmmakers Martin Scorsese and Christopher Nolan, who have been the previous recipients, will award the senior actor for his contribution to the Indian cinema and future generations.

Amitabh Bachchan to receive FIAF award

At the opening ceremony of the 2018 Kolkata Film Festival, the Sholay actor had delivered a fabulous speech on film preservation and said, “Very little of this great film heritage survives, and if we do not take urgent steps to save what remains, in another hundred years there will be no memory of these films and nothing left to celebrate." Amitabh Bachchan was nominated by the FIAF-affiliate Film Heritage Foundation, filmmaker and archivist Shivendra Singh Dungarpur.

Dungarpur in a statement said that the legendary actor has constructively wielded his influence with spectacular acting skills in South Asia and that he was the unanimous choice of the 172 FIAF-affiliated archives for the award. The American film director Scorsese also commented on Amitabh’s accomplishments in the film industry and said that the veteran actor is known for preserving India's film legacy through his exceptional work. Christopher Nolan, who is a past recipient of the FIAF award congratulated the megastar for his contributions in preserving the legacy of the films through his essential roles in several films. 

The FIAF Award was introduced in 2001 when it was initially awarded to Martin Scorsese for his film archival efforts. Since then, the award has been presented to an array of personalities from outside the archival scene who have worked to advocate the cause of film preservation. Other than Christopher Nola, the other recipients of the award include Ingmar Bergman, Mike Leigh, Hou Hsiao-Hsien, Peter Bogdanovich, Rithy Panh, Agnes Varda, Jean-Pierre, Luc Dardenne, Apichatpong Weerasethakul, and many more. 

(With inputs from ANI)