Spike Lee to receive British Film Institute Fellowship

Hollywood filmmaker Spike Lee will be awarded the highest honour by the British Film Institute. The BFI said the Fellowship was in recognition of the filmmaker’s “pioneering body of work that has spanned over thirty years and has chronicled black lives through bold and inventive cinematic works of art from feature films and documentary to television, music, commercials and books”.

The event will take place in London.

The BFI’s event will also include an in-depth on-stage Q&A and screening of his 1999 film Summer of Sam.

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On the announcement, Spike Lee said, “I’m blessed to live up to my ancestors’ credo: ‘deeds, not words.’ I thank the BFI for helping me in continuing my generations of family legacy. Peace and love. Ya-dig? Sho-nuff.” With this Fellowship, Spike Lee will join an esteemed list of previous awardees including Martin Scorsese and Thelma Schoonmaker, Satyajit Ray, Tilda Swinton, David Lean, Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger, Steve McQueen, Akira Kurosawa, Nicholas Roeg CBE, Orson Welles, Sir Ridley Scott, Ousmane Sembène Bernardo Bertolucci and Souleymane Cissé.

“I am honored and excited to be awarding Spike Lee the prestigious BFI Fellowship,” Said BFI Chair Tim Richards. “Lee has such a distinctive voice as an auteur, unafraid to challenge ideas of race, gender and class throughout his career with his unique cinematic style. A true renaissance man and pioneer, he has excelled in so many art forms, staying original, fresh and as relevant to contemporary audiences as those who have enjoyed his work for over thirty years. I am delighted to be celebrating his enormous talent and individuality with a BFI Fellowship.”