Oscar winning director Steve McQueen to receive BAFTA's John Schlesinger Britannia Award

British director Steve McQueen will receive BAFTA’s John Schlesinger Britannia Award. BAFTA Los Angeles on 16 August announced that McQueen, who won an Oscar for 12 Years a Slave , would be this year’s recipient of the John Schlesinger Britannia Award for excellence in directing at the group’s 2018 Britannia Awards, reports hollywoodreporter.com. [caption id=“attachment_4990091” align=“alignnone” width=“825”] Steve McQueen. Image from Facebook[/caption] The award’s previous recipients include Ava DuVernay, Sam Mendes, Danny Boyle, Christopher Nolan, Quentin Tarantino and Kathryn Bigelow. The honour will be presented to McQueen by Viola Davis, the lead star of his much-anticipated Widows, which is yet to have its world premiere. Widows is McQueen’s fourth feature as director after 12 Years a Slave, Shame and Hunger. The 2018 Britannia Awards will take place on 26 October at the Beverly Hilton Hotel. Widows will be an upcoming heist thriller which will feature actors Michelle Rodriguez, Elizabeth Debicki, Cynthia Erivo, Colin Farrell, Brian Tyree Henry, Daniel Kaluuya, Garret Dillahunt, Carrie Coon, Jacki Weaver, Jon Bernthal, Manuel Garcia-Rulfo, Robert Duvall and Liam Neeson along with Davis. The narrative of the film involves an unsuccessful heist attempt which kills four armed robbers. After their deaths, the robbers’ wives take up the job to see it through, till the end. Widows is scheduled to hit the US theatres on 16 November, 2018. (With inputs from Indo-Asian News Service)