Oscar-winning director Spike Lee has been re-named jury president for the 73rd annual Cannes Film Festival. The festival is set to take place this July. Lee will not only be the first African-American to serve as jury president for the festival, but also the first person from the African diaspora. Lee has had seven films that have premiered at Cannes over the years, including “Do the Right Thing,” “Jungle Fever” “Summer of Sam,” and “BlacKkKlansman.” “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,” Lee said via official announcement earlier this morning. “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. And I don’t have the time nor space to write about the cinematic explosion that jumped off, still relative to this, 30 years later,” Lee said. The official selection for Cannes 2021 and the rest of the jury will be announced in May. Whether or not the festival will happen this summer is still up for debate as France, and most of Europe, really, are in the midst of a third wave of the COVID-19 virus. A 6pm curfew has been in effect in France since late last year. For the festival to happen a lot of things would have to come together, including mask mandates and socially distanced seating in the theaters. Meanwhile, Lee’s “Da 5 Bloods” hasn’t been getting much love from awards bodies these last few weeks and was totally shut out of Monday’s Oscar nominations announcement. In a recent interview with The New York Times Lee was asked about how he felt about the film being snubbed. “Well, I would say that I had an inkling that history would be repeated with ‘Green Book.’ And I’ve never really paid much attention to Golden Globes, so…” said Lee. “Da 5 Bloods” is available on Netflix now. Contribute Hire me

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