British video artist Steve McQueen began making short-subject works, almost exclusively silent and black-and-white. They included the short BEAR (1993), which depicts a brief and unusual encounter between two naked men; the 1997 DEADPAN, in which a gentleman stands in the middle of a building as it repeatedly collapses around him; and DRUMROLL (1998), for which McQueen affixed cameras to a barrel and rolled the barrel through the streets of Manhattan.
In 2008, Steve McQueen got immediate international recognition with HUNGER, his debut feature. Starring Michael Fassbender, it dramatises the last painful months of IRA activist Bobby Sands in Belfast’s Maze Prison. The film won the Golden Camera and FIPRESCI Award in Cannes and continued winning over 40 awards world-wide, among them a BAFTA, six Irish IFTAs and the EFA’s European Discovery of the Year.
His second feature, SHAME, again with Michael Fassbender in the lead, offers a compelling and timely examination of the nature of need, how we live our lives and the experiences that shape us. The film won the Young Cinema Award, FIPRESCI Prize and Volpi Cup for Michael Fassbender in Venice 2011 and again continued winning more than 40 international awards, among them two European Film Awards (cinematography & editing).
Steve McQueen’s third feature 12 YEARS A SLAVE went on an impressive international festival tour, was released in 48 countries and won more than 200 awards, among them an Oscar for Best Motion Picture of the Year, a BAFTA and two IFTAs.
Steve McQueen will be an honorary guest at the 27th European Film Awards Ceremony on 13 December 2014 in Riga, streamed live on www.europeanfilmawards.eu.
