Academy Award-winning director Spike Lee has been named jury president for the 73rd annual Cannes Film Festival, taking place May 12-23, 2020.
The announcement was made by the festival on Tuesday morning in Paris.
This makes Spike Lee not only the first African-American to serve as jury president for the storied festival, but also the first person from the African diaspora, as Lee championed in his statement out of the festival.“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,” he said.
“It started way back in 1986 — my first feature film ‘She’s Gotta Have It,’ which won the Prix de la Jeunesse in the Directors’ Fortnight.
The next joint was in 1989 — “Do the Right Thing,” an Official Selection in Competition.
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