Spike Lee To Be Honored At The Toronto International Film Festival

Spike Lee - Jamie McCarthy

African American film director Spike Lee will be honored at the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) on September 10, 2023, during the 5th annual TIFF Tribute Awards. Lee will receive the TIFF Ebert Director Award at the Fairmont Royal York Hotel gala. Since former awardees have included Michelle Yeoh, Joaquin Phoenix, Taika Waititi, and Chloé Zhao, TIFF is considered a predictor of the upcoming awards season.

Films like She's Gotta Have It, Do the Right Thing, School Daze, Malcolm X, and Da 5 Bloods are among the ones Lee has written screenplays for and directed since his debut with Joe's Bed-Stuy Barbershop: We Cut Heads in 1983. He had five Oscar nominations, and BlacKkKlansman, which he co-wrote with Kevin Willmott, David Rabinowitz, and Charlie Wachtel, won Best Adapted Screenplay in 2019. In 2015, Lee made history by becoming the youngest person to win an honorary Academy Award for a career accomplishment. BlacKkKlansman earned him his first Writers Guild Award nomination in 2019.

The 48th annual Toronto Film Festival, set to run from September 7 to 17, 2023, will make additional announcements on honorees for the TIFF Tribute Awards in the coming weeks.