Lifetime Achievement Award 2019

A boy holding a glass in front of him. The boy look sullen, staring into the distance.

FOCAL International to Honour Julien Temple

The legendary and inventive director to receive Lifetime Achievement Award

LONDON, 13 February 2019, FOCAL International are delighted to announce that the 2019 recipient of the FOCAL Lifetime Achievement Award will be the renowned film director, Julien Temple.

Julien Temple’s celebrated filmography traverses the realms of fiction, documentary and music video. His iconic documentaries that include The Filth and the Fury; The Ecstasy of Wilko Johnson; Requiem for Detroit; and London: A Modern Babylon demonstrate his fascination with the lives of creative pioneers as well as the multi-layered histories of people and place.

Whether it is documenting the scarred history of Motor City, the anarchic energy of London, or the tumults of fame and creativity his prolific use of archive as a living and dynamic resource treats the source material with both respect and imagination. It is for this dedication to the creative and transformative potential of archive that FOCAL are recognising his achievements. Julien’s work truly embodies the 2019 FOCAL Awards tagline: The Future of Production Lies in the Past.

In granting this award and on behalf of the FOCAL Executive board Massimo Moretti states:
Julien’s work with archival content has been constantly pushing the barriers of creativity for many years. From pop videos to feature-length documentaries he creates visual associations, reveals hidden meanings, keeps his audiences enthralled with a narrative where archival sources are not merely visual tapestry but a living, changing element in the storytelling process.

Miriam Walsh, the fêted Archive Producer, and collaborator on many of Julien’s films states:
Julien is the artful dodger of the archive world, his films magically assembling narratives of sound and vision plundered from both iconic and often long forgotten audiovisual artifacts. All achieved with and I quote Mark Kermode “an irrepressibly punky joie de vivre”.

Julien received his award at the 2019 Gala ceremony 20 June 2019 at The Troxy in London.