Amsterdam-based British artist and film director Steve McQueen has been awarded the Erasmus prize, one of the Netherlands’ most prestigious artistic honours.

The 56-year-old, best known for his films such as Hunger, 12 Years a Slave and Blitz, was chosen in recognition of the moral complexity and historical depth of his works.

The €150,000 prize is awarded every year by the Praemium Erasmianum foundation for outstanding contributions to the arts and humanities. King Willem-Alexander will present McQueen with the award later this year.

The theme of this year’s prize is Ecce Homo (“behold the human”), which the judges said was a central theme of McQueen’s work: “who we are in moments of vulnerability, how we treat each other, and how history shapes our present”.

“His composed and balanced direction asks the audience not to look away, but to bear the discomfort, inviting reflection and engagement,” the foundation said in a statement.

”In a world marked by polarisation and inequality, McQueen’s work asks us to look carefully and without prejudice – ecce homo – and to recognise ourselves in others.”

Before directing feature films, McQueen won the Turner Prize in 1999 for a short film based on a Buster Keaton movie. He has lived in Amsterdam and London since 1997.

In 2023 McQueen made the four and a half hour film Occupied City, in which he combined footage of Amsterdam during the wartime occupation by Nazi Germany with images of the city during the coronavirus pandemic.

A 34-hour extended version was shown at the city’s Rijksmuseum from October 2025 until January this year. The film was based on the book Atlas of an Occupied City 1940-1945, written by his Dutch wife, Bianca Stigter.

“We can’t ignore what is going on around us,” McQueen told Dutch News at the launch of the non-stop screening. “As an artist I have never felt more useful than I do now.”