Schlesinger's acting career began in the 1950s. He started to direct in 1956. By the 1960s he was not acting so he could just direct. His documentary "Terminus" (1961), got a Venice Film Festival Gold Lion and a British Academy Award. "A Kind of Loving" won the Golden Bear award at the 12th Berlin International Film Festival in 1962. Schlesinger's movie, "Midnight Cowboy" (1969), made in the United States, was internationally successful. A story of two hustlers living on the fringe in the bad side of New York City, it was Schlesinger's first movie shot in the U.S. It won Oscars for Best Director and Best Picture. In 1996 he received the BAFTA Academy Fellowship Award, a lifetime achievement award.