London Film School announces honorary associates

London Film School (LFS), the UK’s longest-standing institution for nurturing filmmaking talent in the UK has announced screenwriter Heidi Thomas and Efe Cakarel, founder and CEO of MUBI, as Honorary Associates of LFS.

The accolade will be awarded by Chairman of the School, Greg Dyke at the School’s annual Graduate Showcase, at the BFI in London, at the LFS Graduate Ceremony on Friday 29^th July.

Honorary Associates are announced each year as part of the at LFS’ Graduate Showcase, usually held in January. Delayed because of the COVID Pandemic, the July 2022 event allows graduates, staff and guests to get together once again to celebrate the hard work and achievements of the previous year. The School’s Honouree programme is possible with the generous assistance of the School’s Graduation sponsors: Panalux, and Cast & Crew Companies Sargent-Disc, and Final Draft.

The Honorary Associates will be an integral part of the School’s wide-ranging pool of industry experts and student mentors for years to come. As part of the Honorary Associate role, they will visit the School during the coming year as part of its long-running Masterclass programme, an exclusive series of industry and alumni-focused events dedicated to the School’s filmmaking students. 

The first of the LFS 2022 Honorary Associates, Efe Cakarel is the Founder and CEO of MUBI, a global streaming service, production company and film distributor. The streaming platform was created after he discovered that he couldn’t watch ‘In the Mood for Love’ in a café in Tokyo. MUBI was born in 2007 with a commitment to celebrate and expand cinema culture across the world and make films like ‘In the Mood for Love’ accessible to people wherever they are. Previously, Efe was with Goldman Sachs in London and New York. He earned his B.S. in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science from MIT, and MBA from Stanford. Efe ranked third in the 1994 European Math Championship in Geneva, Switzerland. He currently serves on the Future Contemporaries Board of Serpentine Galleries in London. Recent and upcoming releases for MUBI include Joachim Trier’s The Worst Person in the World, Céline Sciamma’s Petite Maman, and Park Chan-wook’s Cannes prize-winner, Decision to Leave, which releases in cinemas in the US and UK on October 14, 2022.

Heidi Thomas, the second LFS Honorary Associate is one of the UK’s top dramatists, and her acclaimed career in stage, film and television drama spans more than 30 years. Heidi’s classic adaptations for the large and small screen include Cranford, Return To Cranford, Madame Bovary, Ballet Shoes, I Capture The Castle, and Little Women. She also created and wrote the revived Upstairs Downstairs, and the original BBC1 drama series, Lilies. She wrote the screenplay for the forthcoming movie Allelujah, based on the play by Alan Bennett. Her hit BBC show Call The Midwife is now in its 12th season and is seen in more than 200 territories worldwide. Heidi was awarded an OBE in the Queen’s Birthday Honours List of 2022.

Past Honourees span all areas of the screen industry and in the course of the school’s rich history, have included Abi Morgan, Amma Asante, Asif Kapadia, Stephen Frears, Jim Broadbent, Gurinder Chadha, Tessa Ross, Philip French, Walter Murch, Ken Loach and Samantha Morton, alongside the diverse graduates of the School’s film programmes.