BAFTA has announced that Ilkka Paananen, the co-founder and CEO of Clash of Clans developer Supercell, will receive the BAFTA Fellowship at the upcoming BAFTA Game Awards on April 17.
This is the highest honor from BAFTA, and it is bestowed upon people who have “driven innovation, creativity, and positive change in the screen arts, including games, over the course of their career.”
Paananen is getting the Fellowship for his work at Supercell, which he co-founded in 2010. The studio created Clash of Clans, which is one of the most popular mobile games of all time.
“Receiving the BAFTA Fellowship is an incredible honour. Looking at the names of previous Fellows, I see so many of my personal heroes–people whose work has inspired me and who I continue to look up to. Being included in their company is something I never could have imagined,” he said.
Some of the other Fellows include PlayStation’s Shuhei Yoshida, Metal Gear Solid creator Hideo Kojima, Mario creator Shigeru Miyamoto, Media Molecule’s Siobhan Reddy, and Double Fine’s Tim Schafer. Outside of gaming, other Fellows include Lucasfilm veteran Kathleen Kennedy, The Lord of the Rings actor Christopher Lee, and Sir David Attenborough, just to name a few.
BAFTA CEO Jane Millichip said Paananen is a “visionary leader in games” whose work to nurture talent at Supercell reflects “the very best of BAFTA’s values.”
Outside of Supercell itself, Paananen is known for co-founding the Ilkka Paananen Foundation in 2015 to promote social and mental well-being for young people.
The BAFTA Awards take place Friday, April 17 at the Southbank Centre’s Queen Elizabeth Hall in London. The event will stream live on BAFTA’s Twitch and YouTube channels, and Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 leads all others for game nominations, including overall Game of the Year. It already has more Game of the Year wins than any other game in history.