The 1st Hall Of Fame Inductee Representing Films Beyond Genre Definition: Pulp Fiction (1994) - Quentin Tarantino

Quentin Tarantino’s second film was a Molotov cocktail to cinema back in 1994, and today still defies any pinpoint commentators and audiences try to put on it. As magical a treasure-box as Marcellus Wallace’s briefcase, Pulp Fiction is a shot of adrenaline that makes nearly everything else seem banal. Pure cinematic excellence and Tarantino at his very best. 

Pulp Fiction Trailer

The 2nd Hall Of Fame Inductee Representing Short Film: Elephant (1989) - Alan Clarke

This a personal one for me, I know, but the late great Alan Clarke’s experimental short depicting a number of murders in Northern Ireland during The Troubles is a proverbial shell-shock. I saw this at a lecture screening at Queen’s University in Belfast, and was in floods of tears, because for the first time I truly understood The Troubles. The construction reflects the audience’s desire for the futile violence to stop.

Alan Clarke's Elephant

The 7th Hall Of Inductee For Contribution To Directing - Christopher Nolan

The greatest working filmmaker, Christopher Nolan has since the late 1990s been consistently making great films. From Following to his masterful breakthrough thriller Memento, helming of The Dark Knight trilogy and changing the face of big-budget filmmaking with Inception, he is the natural successor to Alfred Hitchcock, but with his very own authorial stylistic approach. Still young, but more than worthy of ascension to the pantheon of the greats.

Christopher Nolan Interview on The Culture Show with Mark Kermode

The 3rd Hall Of Fame Inductee Representing Documentary Film: The War Game (1965) - Peter Watkins

In 1965, Peter Watkin’s made-for-television docudrama The War Game caused an uproar, with the BBC, producers of the film, declaring it “too horrifying for the medium of broadcasting.” Frighteningly depicting a Soviet nuclear attack against Britain, it details in a journalistic format the UK’s inability to deal with the fallout crisis of such an event. Reality burns.

The War Game

The 6th Hall Of Fame Inductee For Contribution To Directing - Ingmar Bergman

Most ‘great’ filmmakers make one or two masterpieces in the course of their career: from 1946 to 1982, Ingmar Bergman made many. Releasing both the epochal The Seventh Seal and magisterial Wild Strawberries in the same year, he carved out a career with a wide range of works, mostly low-budget, such as The Virgin Spring, The Silence, Persona, Hour Of The Wolf, Shame, Fanny And Alexander, and so much more. His body of work is proof that creativity needs not have any restraints.

Ang Lee on Ingmar Bergman's The Virgin Spring

The 4th Hall Of Fame Inductee Representing Action/Adventure Film: First Blood (1982) - Ted Kotcheff

Although best remembered as the beginning of the Rambo franchise, First Blood is not only a superior action movie but a compassionate depiction of the psychological horrors of war. Sylvester Stallone is hauntingly brilliant as John Rambo, both from a physical and emotional standpoint. Not just a top action film, but also one of the greatest American films ever made.

First Blood Opening Scene

The 5th Hall Of Fame Inductee For Contribution To Producing - Dino De Laurentiis

168 films in sixty-six years; those are the numbers regarding Dino De Laurentiis. Beginning his career in Italy with neo-realist films from Roberto Rossellini and Federico Fellini, he would go on to work with luminaries such as John Huston, Luchino Visconti, Mario Bava, Sidney Lumet, Michael Winner, Ingmar Bergman, Milos Forman, John Milius, Michael Cimimo, David Cronenberg, David Lynch, Michael Mann, Richard Donner, Ridley Scott… the list goes on. One of cinema’s legitimate renaissance men.

Dino De Laurentiis receives the Irving G. Thalberg Award