Hugh Grant Awarded BFI Fellowship. The actor was given the British Film Institute's highest honor in the last event presided over by current chair Greg Dyke.

24/02/2016 - An actor regarded as among the most quintessentially British of Brits has been awarded the British Film Institute's highest honor. Hugh Grant, who broke out in Four Weddings and a Funeral and went on to become the U.K. rom-com king with lead roles in Notting Hill and Love, Actually, was given the BFI Fellowship at a ceremony held on Tuesday.

The honor was presented by Eric Fellner, co-chairman at Working Title, which has produced many Grant-led films. The award also marked the final event presided over by Greg Dyke as chairman of the BFI. Dyke is due to step down in the coming weeks, with Warner Bros. U.K. head Josh Berger taking over. "With impeccable comic timing and huge doses of his unique, ironic, self-deprecating and very British charm, Hugh always pulls off the hardest thing of all — a seemingly effortless performance. I can assure you it’s not," said Dyke. "Hugh’s acting talents are prodigious and his contribution to cinema enormous. He is a British icon and has been making literally billions of people all over the world laugh, cry — and fall in love with him, of course – for over 30 years." Grant is next due to appear alongside Meryl Streep in Stephen Frears' Florence Foster Jenkins, due for release in the U.K. in May.

(Hollywoodreporter AWARDS)