List of awards and nominations received by Spike Lee
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The following is a list of awards and nominations received by Spike Lee.
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Lee at the Cannes Film Festival | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Totals[a] | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Wins | 28 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Nominations | 79 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Note
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Spike Lee is an American filmmaker and actor. He is known for directing racial dramas, historical epics, thrillers, war dramas, social satires and documentary films. Lee has received various awards including an Academy Award, a British Academy Film Award, four Emmy Awards and two Peabody Awards as well as nominations for a Grammy Award, three Golden Globe Awards, and three Critics' Choice Movie Awards.
Lee started his career with an early student film Joe's Bed-Stuy Barbershop: We Cut Heads (1983) which earned the Student Academy Award. He directed his seminal breakthrough work, the racial drama Do the Right Thing (1989) which received acclaim as well nominations for the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay as well as two Golden Globe Awards (for Best Director and Best Screenplay).
He directed the historical documentary film 4 Little Girls (1997) which was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature Film and the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Documentary or Nonfiction Special. With the historical comedy-drama BlacKkKlansman (2018), he won the Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay, his first competitive win, as well as nominations for Best Picture and Best Director.
He directed the HBO documentary miniseries When the Levees Broke (2006) for which he received a Peabody Award as well as two Primetime Emmy Awards (for Outstanding Directing for a Documentary/Nonfiction Program and the Exceptional Merit in Documentary Filmmaking). He directed another HBO documentary, If God Is Willing and da Creek Don't Rise (2010) for which he won his second Peabody Award. He directed the HBO David Byrne concert film American Utopia (2020) for which he was nominated for the Grammy Award for Best Music Film.
Over his career he has received numerous honors including the Special BAFTA Award in 2002, an Honorary César in 2003, The Dorothy and Lillian Gish Prize in 2013, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences's Academy Honorary Award in 2015, the Directors Guild of America's Lifetime Achievement Award in 2022, and the American Society of Cinematographers Board of Governor's Award in 2024. He was presented with the National Medal of Arts from President Joe Biden in 2023.
Major Associations
Academy Awards
| Year | Category | Nominated work | Result | Ref. |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1983 | Student Academy Award | Joe's Bed-Stuy Barbershop: We Cut Heads | Won | [1] |
| 1989 | Best Original Screenplay | Do the Right Thing | Nominated | [2] |
| 1997 | Best Documentary Feature | 4 Little Girls | Nominated | [3] |
| 2015 | Academy Honorary Award | Recipient | [4] | |
| 2018 | Best Picture | BlacKkKlansman | Nominated | [5] |
| Best Director | Nominated | |||
| Best Adapted Screenplay | Won | |||
BAFTA Awards
| Year | Category | Nominated work | Result | Ref. |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| British Academy Film Awards | ||||
| 2002 | Special Award | Himself | Recipient | [6] |
| 2018 | Best Film | BlacKkKlansman | Nominated | [7] |
| Best Direction | Nominated | |||
| Best Adapted Screenplay | Won | |||
Critics' Choice Awards
| Year | Category | Nominated work | Result | Ref. |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Critics' Choice Movie Awards | ||||
| 2018 | Best Director | BlacKkKlansman | Nominated | [8] |
| Best Adapted Screenplay | Nominated | |||
| 2020 | Best Director | Da 5 Bloods | Nominated | [9] |
Emmy Awards
| Year | Category | Nominated work | Result | Ref. |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Primetime Emmy Awards | ||||
| 1998 | Outstanding Documentary or Nonfiction Special | 4 Little Girls | Nominated | [10] |
| 2007 | Outstanding Directing for Nonfiction Programing | When the Levees Broke | Won | [11] |
| Exceptional Merit in Documentary | Won | |||
| 2021 | Outstanding Variety Special (Pre-Recorded) | David Byrne's American Utopia | Nominated | [12] |
| Outstanding Directing for a Variety Special | Nominated | |||
| New York Emmy Awards | ||||
| 2015 | Entertainment: Program/Special | The Lineup: Best New York Movies | Won | |
| Interview/Discussion | Won | |||
| Sports Emmy Awards | ||||
| 2022 | Outstanding Production | The 2021 NBA Finals | Nominated | |
Golden Globe Awards
| Year | Category | Nominated work | Result | Ref. |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1990 | Best Director | Do The Right Thing | Nominated | [13] |
| Best Screenplay | Nominated | |||
| 2019 | Best Director | BlacKkKlansman | Nominated | [13] |
Grammy Awards
| Year | Category | Nominated work | Result | Ref. |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2022 | Best Music Film | David Byrne's American Utopia | Nominated | [14] |
Peabody Awards
| Year | Category | Nominated work | Result | Ref. |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2001 | Peabody Award | A Huey P. Newton Story | Won | |
| 2006 | When the Levees Broke: A Requiem in Four Acts | Won | ||
| 2010 | If God Is Willing and da Creek Don't Rise | Won | ||
Festival awards
| Organizations | Year | Category | Work | Result | Ref. |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| American Black Film Festival | 1998 | Best Director | 4 Little Girls | Nominated | |
| 1999 | He Got Game | Nominated | |||
| Best Screenplay | Nominated | ||||
| 2004 | Time Warner Innovator Award | Won | |||
| Atlanta Film Festival | 2005 | Ossie Davis Award | Won | ||
| Berlin International Film Festival | 1993 | Golden Bear | Malcolm X | Nominated | |
| 1997 | Get on the Bus | Nominated | |||
| Honourable Mention | Won | [15] | |||
| 2001 | Golden Bear | Bamboozled | Nominated | ||
| 2003 | 25th Hour | Nominated | |||
| Cannes Film Festival | 1986 | Caméra d'Or | She's Gotta Have It | Nominated | |
| Award of the Youth | Won | ||||
| 1989 | Palme d'Or | Do the Right Thing | Nominated | ||
| 1991 | Jungle Fever | Nominated | |||
| Ecumenical Jury - Special Mention | Won | ||||
| 1999 | C.I.C.A.E. Award | Summer of Sam | Nominated | ||
| 2002 | Un Certain Regard Award | Ten Minutes Older: The Trumpet | Nominated | ||
| 2018 | Palme d'Or | BlacKkKlansman | Nominated | ||
| Grand Prix | Won | ||||
| Ecumenical Jury - Special Mention | Won | ||||
| Capri Hollywood International Film Festival | 2018 | Best Adapted Screenplay | Blackkklansman | Won | [16] |
Miscellaneous awards
Honorary awards
| Organizations | Year | Award | Result | Ref. |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences | 2015 | Academy Honorary Award | Honored | [18] |
| American Society of Cinematographers | 2024 | Board of Governor's Award | Honored | [19] |
| British Academy Film Awards | 2002 | Special BAFTA Award | Honored | [20] |
| César Awards | 2003 | Honorary César | Honored | [21] |
| Directors Guild of America | 2022 | Lifetime Achievement Award | Honored | [22] |
| The Dorothy and Lillian Gish Prize | 2013 | Gish Prize | Honored | [23] |
| National Endowment for the Arts | 2023 | National Medal of Arts | Honored | [24] |
Awards and nominations received by Lee's films
| Year | Film | Academy Awards | BAFTA Awards | Golden Globe Awards | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nominations | Wins | Nominations | Wins | Nominations | Wins | ||
| 1989 | Do the Right Thing | 2 | 4 | ||||
| 1992 | Malcolm X | 2 | 1 | ||||
| 2002 | 25th Hour | 1 | |||||
| 2018 | BlacKkKlansman | 6 | 1 | 5 | 1 | 4 | |
| 2020 | Da 5 Bloods | 1 | 1 | ||||
| Total | 11 | 1 | 6 | 1 | 10 | 0 | |
Directed Academy Award performances
Under Lee's direction, these actors have received Academy Award nominations for their performances in their respective roles.
| Year | Performer | Film | Result |
|---|---|---|---|
| Academy Award for Best Actor | |||
| 1992 | Denzel Washington | Malcolm X | Nominated |
| Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor | |||
| 1989 | Danny Aiello | Do the Right Thing | Nominated |
| 2018 | Adam Driver | BlacKkKlansman | Nominated |