Spike Lee will receive DGA’s Lifetime Achievement Award

Filmmaker Spike Lee will receive the Directors Guild of America’s highest honor in March.

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The Academy Award-winning director, the creative spark behind “Do The Right Thing,” “Malcolm X” and “BlacKkKlansman,” will receive the DGA’s Lifetime Achievement Award for Distinguished Achievement in Motion Picture Direction, according to The Hollywood Reporter. The award “recognizes extraordinary efforts in the art of cinema.”

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Lee, 64, will receive the award on March 12 during the 74th DGA Awards ceremony, the guild announced Wednesday.

DGA Awards: Spike Lee Tapped for Lifetime Achievement Honor https://t.co/MxG9uoAYNF
— The Hollywood Reporter (@THR) January 19, 2022

“Icon. Trailblazer. Visionary. Spike Lee has changed the face of cinema, and there is no single word that encapsulates his significance to the craft of directing,” Lesli Linka Glatter, president of the DGA, said in a statement. “From his groundbreaking ‘Do the Right Thing,’ ‘BlacKkKlansman’ and everything in between -- to his signature ‘double dolly’ shot, Spike is an innovator on so many levels. His bold and passionate storytelling over the past three decades has masterfully entertained, as it held a stark mirror to our society and culture.”

Only 35 directors have received the DGA’s lifetime achievement award, Variety reported. Past winners have included Frank Capra (1959), Alfred Hitchcock (1968), Orson Welles (1984), Billy Wilder (1985), Steven Spielberg (2000), Martin Scorsese (2003), Milos Forman (2013) and Ridley Scott (2017).

The award winners are selected by past and present presidents of the guild, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

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