Credit: Alamy

Spike Lee honoured with BFI Fellowship

Sat 28 January 2023 10:14, UK

The influential filmmaker Spike Lee will join the likes of Martin Scorsese, Satyajit Ray, Tilda Swinton, Akira Kurosawa, Nicholas Roeg and Orson Welles when he is honoured with a BFI fellowship in February 2023.

Recognising the body of work from the iconic director, writer, actor, producer and author, Lee will receive the highest honour bestowed by the BFI at a special celebration and on-stage Q&A at the BFI Southbank. Known for countless influential movies over the last few decades, Lee helmed the seminal 1989 movie Do the Right Thing and his 2018 Oscar-winner BlacKkKlansman.

“I’m blessed to live up to my ancestor’s credo ‘DEEDS, NOT WORDS’”, Lee stated, adding: “I thank the BFI for helping me in continuing my generations of family legacy. Peace and love. YA-DIG? SHO-NUFF”.

Meanwhile, BFI chair Tim Richards expressed, “I am honoured and excited to be awarding Spike Lee the prestigious BFI Fellowship,” before honouring his body of work: “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 30 years”.

A prolific icon in the history of late 20th-century cinema, few directors quite had an impact like Spike Lee, becoming a pioneering voice for black creatives at a time when such voices were kept silent by the industry. Instilling a pertinent message of civil rights into almost each and every one of his movies, Lee has forced Hollywood to consider its place in the conversation, creating such passionate movies as Get on the Bus, Malcolm X and Chi-Raq in order to do so.

Of his filmography, it is 1989s Do the Right Thing that remains his most pertinent and powerful film.