Spike Lee’s first-ever competitive Oscar award turned a mostly staid ceremony into a joyful, passionate, and briefly profane one.
Lee, who captured the best adapted screenplay trophy for “BlacKkKlansman,” jumped into the arms of presenter, longtime collaborator and friend Samuel L. Jackson when he took the stage Sunday to accept his award with Charlie Wachtel, David Rabinowitz and Kevin Willmott. The audience gave him a standing ovation.
The veteran filmmaker had waited a long time to be recognized by his peers in the movie industry beyond the honorary Oscar he received in 2016 for his contributions to movies. He received his first Oscar nod in 1989 for best original screenplay for “Do The Right Thing.”
After unleashing an expletive as he warned Oscar producers not to put a clock on his speech, Lee noted that his award came during Black History Month, and recited a litany of facts, among them the 400-year-old enslavement of Africans and transport to America. He also said his grandmother was a graduate of the predominately black Spelman College, despite her mother having been a slave.
“Before the world tonight, I give praise to our ancestors who helped build this country,” Lee said. “We all connect with our ancestors … when we love our humanity.”
He also waded into politics, citing the 2020 presidential election and calling on people to mobilize and “be on the right side of history. Make the moral choice between love versus hate.”
“Let’s do the right thing, you know I had to get that in there.”
Filmmaker Spike Lee was elated when “BlacKkKlansman” was announced as the Oscar winner for Adapted Screenplay at the 91st Academy Awards. He urged people to be “on the right side of history”.
Lee paced towards the stage and hugged presenter Samuel L. Jackson in what was an effusive reaction to the award announcement.
He paid a tribute to his grandmother — whose mother was a slave — and who lived to be 100 years old and was responsible for putting him through Morehouse College and New York University film school.
Making a political comment, Lee, whose film takes on racism in the US, said: “The 2020 presidential election is around the corner. Let us all mobilise, let’s all be on the right side of history. Make the moral choice between love versus hate.”
He received a standing ovation.
Written by Charlie Wachtel and David Rabinowitz and Kevin Willmott and Spike Lee, the film is based on a book by Ron Stallworth.
The crime drama is set in 1970s Colorado Springs, and follows the first African-American detective in the city’s police department as he sets out to infiltrate and expose the local chapter of the Ku Klux Klan.
Before the Adapted Screenplay honour, Nick Vallelonga, Brian Currie and Peter Farrelly won the Best Original Screenplay for “Green Book”.
The film is backed by Anil Ambani-led Reliance Entertainment.