As we saw in 2019, awards season seems to be shrinking, with the Golden Globes and Oscars coming way sooner than usual, forcing studios to pump out films at a faster rate. Well, as awards season becomes a bit contracted, film festival season is basically year-round now. We are barely into January and we’ve already got Sundance around the corner, and now, we’re beginning our Cannes discussion.
No, we still don’t know which films will be coming to the prestigious French festival (it’s quite clear that “The French Dispatch” will be among the announcements, however), but we do know who’s going to be leading the Jury — Spike Lee. Cannes recently announced that the legendary filmmaker, who debuted his previous film “BlacKkKlansman” at the event (as well as a number of other films), will lead the Jury of the 2020 festival.
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“When I got the call that I was offered the opportunity to be president of Cannes jury for 2020, I was shocked, happy, surprised and proud all at the same time,” said Lee.
He added, “To me the Cannes Film Festival (besides being the most important film festival in the world – no disrespect to anybody) has had a great impact on my film career. You could easily say Cannes changed the trajectory of who I became in world cinema.”
Lee now joins an exclusive group of filmmakers and actors to lead the Cannes Jury, including recent choices such as Alejandro González Iñárritu, Cate Blanchett, Pedro Almodovar, and George Miller.
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So, even though we’re still months away from the spring event, it’s never too early for film festival season.
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Lee’s full statement can be read below (via Deadline):
“In this life I have lived, my biggest blessings have been when they arrived unexpected, when they happened out of nowhere. When I got the call that I was offered the opportunity to be president of Cannes jury for 2020, I was shocked, happy, surprised and proud all at the same time.”
To me the Cannes Film Festival (besides being the most important film festival in the world – no disrespect to anybody) has had a great impact on my film career. You could easily say Cannes changed the trajectory of who I became in world cinema.
It started way back in 1986 – my first feature film She’s Gotta Have It, which won the Prix de la Jeunesse in the Director’s Fortnight. The next joint was in 1989 – Do The Right Thing, an Official Selection in Competition. And I don’t have the time nor space to write about the cinematic explosion that jumped off, still relative to this, 30 years later.
Then Jungle Fever 1991 – Official Selection in Competition, Girl 6 1996 – Official Selection out of Competition, Summer Of Sam 1999 – Director’s Fortnight, Ten Minutes Older 2002 – Official Selection in Un Certain Regard and then BlacKkKlansman 2018 – Official Selection in Competition where it won the Grand Prix, which became the launching pad for the world theatrical release which led to my Academy Award for screenplay.
So if you were keeping score that’s 7 Spike Joints to be chosen. In closing I’m honored to be the first person of the African diaspora (USA) to be named president of the Cannes jury and of a main film festival. The Lee family sincerely thanks the Festival de Cannes, Pierre Lescure and Thierry Frémaux and the great people of France who have supported my film career throughout four decades. I will always treasure this special relationship.”
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