Spike Lee will be honored with a Lifetime Achievement Award at the Torino Film Festival in Turin, and the Oscar-winning director will release his Akira Kurosawa-inspired kidnapping drama “Highest 2 Lowest” in Italy.
Lee’s latest film, a reimagining of Kurosawa’s 1963 crime thriller High and Low starring Denzel Washington and produced by Apple Original Films and A24, had its world premiere at Cannes. Washington plays a music mogul who faces a series of big moral choices.
The director recently traveled to Italy in March and met iconic Italian singer Adriano Celentano. A variation of his hit song “Prisenkolinensiintusol” is included on “Highest 2 Lowest”, recorded by Aiyana Lee under the title “Prisenkolinen (Americano Joint)”.
Lee won an Academy Award for his role in the adaptation of “BlacKkKlansman” and an honorary Oscar in 2016. Other most notable films include “Do the Right Thing,” “Malcolm X,” and “Four Little Girls.”
Lee will be speaking on stage and accepting the Stella della Mole award at Torino Fest, the premier event for young directors and independent films run by Italy’s National Cinema Museum. He will also visit the venerable film shrine in the domed tower of the iconic Mole Antonelliana, long known as a treasure trove of film memorabilia.
“Giving Spike Lee the Stella della Mole means honoring a trailblazer, the first great African American director to bring his radical, unmistakable voice to the heart of world mainstream cinema and keep that power intact,” said Torino Film Festival Artistic Director Giulio Base. “His films combine rigor and passion, politics and music, anger and poetry.”
The 43rd Torino Games will be held in the northern Italian city of Turin from November 21st to 29th. The fest lineup will be announced on November 7th.
