Spike Lee will be awarded the Jaeger-LeCoultre Glory to the Filmmaker Award at the Venice Film Festival.
Lee will accept the nod, created by the fest with Jaeger-LeCoultre to honor an artist’s original mark on contemporary cinema, on Aug. 31 prior to the world preem out-of-competish screening of his new docu “Bad 25,” about the 25th anni of Michael Jackson’s “Bad” album. Lee previously directed two videoclips for Jackson songs “They Don’t Care About Us,” in 1997, and “This Is It” in 2009.
Venice artistic director Alberto Barbera called Lee, who is a Lido aficionado, “a creative and combative spirit, author of audacious and scathing films which are often unpredictable and provocative in the best sense of the word.”
Recent recipients of the nod include Takeshi Kitano, Abbas Kiarostami, Sylvester Stallone and Al Pacino.
The 69th edition of Venice will run Aug. 29-Sept. 8.