Following his Oscar success with Slumdog Millionaire it was assured that Danny Boyle’s next film would receive great attention and 127 Hours starring James Franco is highly anticipated and should make an excellent closing night film for the 54th London Film Festival this year.

I can still remember sitting in a Southampton cinema as the titles for Shallow Grave came up on screen and I knew then that I was watching something new, fresh and effortlessly vibrant and energetic.

To follow that film up with Trainspotting compounded the interest in Boyle’s work and he has turned his hand to many other genres in the past decade and a half, growing in confidence and capability and enthralling millions of moviegoers.

That he is to be awarded the BFI Fellowship is both completely correct and a celebration of the man’s work so far, and he joins an august list of Fellows (which you can see here).

Here’s what the BFI issued,

Director Danny Boyle will receive the highest accolade that the British Film Institute bestows, the BFI Fellowship. This award is given to individuals whose body of work has made an outstanding contribution to film culture. Boyle, whose latest feature 127 HOURS closes this year’s festival, said of the award

“A significant helping of humility is called for in the face of this honour and that is not difficult considering those awarded it before. I am shocked, flattered and delighted to receive the Fellowship on behalf of everyone who has helped me make the films, the successful ones and the not so successful ones, and on behalf of all runts in every litter.”

Boyle’s Slumdog Millionaire closed the 2008 festival and screened to huge acclaim on its way to worldwide box office and awards success.