Walter Hill, renowned for directing “The Warriors” and “48 Hrs.,” is set to receive the Fantastic Fest lifetime achievement award. Following this honor, a nationwide retrospective of Hill’s work will be showcased in January at select Alamo Drafthouse locations.
The award ceremony will be part of Fantastic Fest’s opening weekend at the Alamo Drafthouse South Lamar in Austin, Texas. The event will include a screening of Hill’s 1987 western “Extreme Prejudice,” followed by a Q&A session. Notably, Hill is the first honoree at Fantastic Fest to have a retrospective screening of his films.
“Walter Hill is one of the American cinema’s greatest pulp artists,” said Jake Isgar, Fantastic Fest programmer and Alamo Drafthouse director, in a statement. “Showcasing his work to audiences coast-to-coast has long been a dream of ours, and one we can’t wait to fulfill.”
Hill’s extensive directing credits include “Streets of Fire,” “Red Heat,” “Hard Times,” “Southern Comfort,” and “The Long Riders.” He also holds a writing credit for “The Getaway,” directed by Sam Peckinpah, and won an Emmy for directing an episode of the drama series “Deadwood.”
Since the release of Ridley Scott’s 1979 classic “Alien,” Hill has been a significant part of the “Alien” franchise. His contributions include an executive producer credit on “Aliens” and producer credits on films such as “Alien 3,” “Alien: Resurrection,” “Alien vs. Predator,” “Aliens vs. Predator: Requiem,” “Prometheus,” “Alien: Covenant,” and “Alien: Romulus.”
Prior to his directorial debut with “Hard Times” in 1975, Hill wrote screenplays for films like “Hickey & Boggs,” “The Getaway,” “The Thief Who Came to Dinner,” “The MacKintosh Man,” and “The Drowning Pool.”
Previous recipients of Fantastic Fest’s lifetime achievement award include notable figures such as Park Chan-wook, Bong Joon-ho, Yuen Woo-Ping, Clint Mansell, Takashi Miike, Jess Franco, and Malcolm McDowell. The full line-up for Fantastic Fest will be announced in August.
