What can we expect from President Spike Lee at… | Little White Lies

Festivals

What can we expect from Pres­i­dent Spike Lee at Cannes 2020?

14 Jan 2020

Words by Charles Bramesco

A middle-aged Black man wearing a black cap with "BLACK" written on it, a colourful patterned shirt, and round glasses, stands in a crowd and holds up his hands in a gesture.
A middle-aged Black man wearing a black cap with "BLACK" written on it, a colourful patterned shirt, and round glasses, stands in a crowd and holds up his hands in a gesture.
Brooklyn’s finest will head up the com­pe­ti­tion jury when the fes­ti­val returns for its 73rd edition.

A hec­tic time, Jan­u­ary, as movie types split their atten­tions between the impend­ing Sun­dance Film Fes­ti­val and the mad dash to the Oscar fin­ish line. But for those of us who won’t be schlep­ping out to Park City, and to whom an awards show that over­looks Adam San­dler means noth­ing, the next thing to look for­ward to would have to be Cannes.

While the 73rd annu­al Cannes Film Fes­ti­val won’t unveil its line­up for anoth­er few months, one major ques­tion mark has been resolved. The organ­is­ers today announced that the sit­ting Pres­i­dent of the Com­pe­ti­tion Jury in 2020 will be Spike Lee, a friend of the fest who most recent­ly took the Grand Prix in 2018 for his sear­ing-yet-true bud­dy cop pic­ture BlacK­kKlans­man.

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As many were quick to note, he’s made his­to­ry right off the bat as the first-ever black artist to lead the Jury of inter­na­tion­al­ly esteemed peers on the Croisette. At a time when every year brings renewed crit­i­cisms about the large­ly white and male pro­file of the fes­ti­val, Lee’s pres­ence makes a deci­sive state­ment that Cannes head hon­cho Thier­ry Fré­maux is look­ing to pro­mote a spir­it of diversity.

While the final slate of awards must be reached by some mea­sure of con­sen­sus between the nine mem­bers of the Com­pe­ti­tion Jury, it’s under­stood that those choic­es are at least in part an expres­sion of the President’s tastes. Lee’s got a rep­u­ta­tion as a guy who doesn’t mince words, and who isn’t shy when it comes to voic­ing his opin­ion – throw in a few more strong per­son­al­i­ties, and we could have the most amus­ing­ly frac­tious Jury line­up since the Coen broth­ers near­ly came to blows with Xavier Dolan in 2015.

If noth­ing else, the grandil­o­quent Lee can be count­ed on to drop a few mem­o­rable sound­bites, and more over, he’ll bring the spir­it of Bed-Stuy to the stuffy banks of the Cote d’Azur. It’ll be a refresh­ing change of pace to see the Pres­i­dent strolling down the red car­pet while rock­ing full-knuck­le gold rings.

The Cannes Film Fes­ti­val will take place from 12 to 23 May.

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