Pinewood Studios: Outstanding Contribution to British Film Production 2017
It is where stars are born and legacies made. Pinewood Studios has been a hallmark of the British film industry since the 1930s, bringing phantasy to life on the silver screen. A pioneer of innovation, Pinewood Studios introduced the unit system to Great Britain, allowing multiple films to be shot simultaneously. Soon, the facility attained an output not matched by any other studio in the world. Today, Pinewood Studios boasts the only underwater stage in the world measuring over 1,600m2 and set in a huge water tank. It was used, amongst others, in the filming of the 2011 blockbuster On Stranger Tides of the Pirates of the Caribbean series.
Pinewood Studios’ annals constitute a veritable treasure trove of British film history with timeless productions that marked their era such as From Russia with Love, Goldfinger, and The Battle of Britain in the 1960s and The Spy Who Loved Me, Alien, and Full Metal Jacket in the decades that followed.
During the lean years of the 1970s, the studio was saved from receivership by none other than Superman. The franchise gave the sprawling facility in Buckinghamshire a new lease on life. Since then, the company has grown into a global business opening studios in the US, Canada, Ireland, Malaysia, China and the Dominican Republic where it built an eight acre water effects facility – the largest of its kind in the world.
The British film industry owes a significant part of its legacy to Pinewood Studios which built and maintained a reputation for excellence. The CFI.co judging panel unanimously grants Pinewood Studios the 2017 Outstanding Contribution to British Film Production Award.
