In feel-good news, Warwick Davis won the highest honor of prize at the BAFTA Film Awards: the Fellowship prize.
Warwick Davis is known for many roles throughout cinema. His most notable characters are Professor Flitwick and Griphook in Harry Potter, Willow in Willow, and the Ewok Wicket in Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi.
Willow Ufgood (Warwick Davis) in Lucasfilm’s WILLOW exclusively on Disney+. ©.
At this year’s BAFTA Film Awards, the actor received the highest tier of prize, handed to him by his peers.
Hollywood news outlet Deadline reported that Mark Hamill and Tom Felton—Davis’s fellow actors from Harry Potter and Star Wars, respectfully—presented him with the Fellowship prize at the awards show. According to the report, Davis was praised for his contribution to the industry and ambassadorial presence in the dwarf community.
When announcing the award, Mark Hamill, best known for his role as Luke Skywalker, called Warwick Davis “one of the hardest working men in showbusiness.” His pants them immediately fell down.
Mark Hamill’s pants fall down and he tries to play it off.
🤣🤣🤣pic.twitter.com/mnHzgmbk9S— Script Trooper (@ScriptTrooper) February 18, 2025
Star Wars creator George Lucas, who was also present at the awards, called Davis a “great actor.” Tom Felton, who portrayed Draco Malfoy in the Harry Potter movies, presented Davis with the award. Felton said that Davis not only taught him his first spell, but also to not “let being small stop you from dreaming big.”
Davis grew emotional, thanked his loved ones, and remarked on how special the award was to him. “This is one of the best things that’s ever happened to me,” he said, “and I’ve been in Star Wars.”
The unexpected death of Davis’s wife last year clearly took a toll on him. He said in his acceptance speech that his children and other loved ones had taught him to “laugh and love again.” Receiving such an esteemed award within the film industry must really have lifted his spirits.
Warwick Davis gives a moving speech accepting his BAFTA Fellowship Award. Davis also dedicates it to his late wife. #BAFTAS #BAFTA2025 pic.twitter.com/MmLsntAo4m
— 𝙲𝚒𝚗𝚎𝚖𝚊 𝙱𝚞𝚛𝚜𝚝 (@CinemaBurst) February 16, 2025
Warwick Davis certainly has had his share of losses and wins. Portraying multiple Star Wars characters and a Hogwarts professor, to name a few roles, were certainly highlights in his career. Lucasfilm’s reboot of Willow, however, could definitely count as a loss.
Under Kathleen Kennedy’s reign, Disney has systematically dismantled all that George Lucas created. One of those casualties was Willow, a sequel show to the one-off movie in which Davis reprised his old role. Unfortunately for Davis, and unsurprising to old-school Lucasfilm fans, the reboot was a disaster. Agendas and politics were shoved into every episode. Davis’s character, the wizard Willow whom the movie was named for, was hardly in the reboot at all. The show was canceled after only one season. In fact, it was so poorly received that Disney actually removed the entire series from streaming site in favor of a tax cut!
Warwick Davis as Willow in Disney / Lucasfilm’s Willow Series
Though Davis has appeared in other projects since then, it is unknown how he felt about the debacle with Willow. We can only assume that, at the very least, he was not pleased with it. Therefore, receiving the Fellowship prize at the BAFTA awards must truly have meant the world to him. To be recognized by his peers even after the Willow show flopped may have been just what he needed to move on.
Do you think Warwick Davis deserved the Fellowship prize? Share your thoughts in the comments below.
To have him not receive the award after all his good work but receive it after the Willow demake only shows how little the award is worth. It’s like telling Zelensky how Obama, who let Russia take Crimea, got a Nobel Peace Prize, but not Trump for all his genuine work at achieving peace.