The British Film Institute has announced today that it is adding American director Tim Burton and British actress, Helena Bonham Carter to its fellowship roster of 68 members. Among previous recipients of the BFI highest honour are David Lean, Akira Kurosawa, Robert Altman, Martin Scorsese, Krzyzstof Kieslowski, Michelangelo Antonioni, Orson Welles, Ridley Scott, Danny Boyle, Elizabeth Taylor, Vanessa Redgrave, Maggie Smith, Deborah Kerr, Jeanne Moreau, Bette Davis, Maureen O’Hara.

“It means more than I can put into words to receive the BFI Fellowship and to be included alongside the great director who have received it before me,” said Burton, who relocated from his birthplace Los Angeles to London in 2001, after developing a romantic relationship with Bonham Carter, whom he met while filming Planet Of The Apes.

Bonham Carter was equally gratified. “I am somewhat bewildered and not sure i am deserving of such an honor as a Fellowship from the BFI, but I shall accept it with deep gratitude,” she said.

Burton’s new animated movie Frankenweenie will open this year’s BFI London Film Festival, which runs from Oct. 10 to Oct. 21, while Great Expectations, which features Bonham Carter will close it.

Burton and Bonham Carter, who regularly work together,  live in Belsize Park with their two kids. The BFI Fellowship will be present it to them on Oct. 20.