Spike Lee, winner of an honorary Oscar in 2016 and three years later a Best Adapted Screenplay Academy Award for BlacKkKlansman, will receive the esteemed Trailblazer Award from the Location Managers Guild International (LMGI) at the 7th Annual LMGI Awards celebrating the theme “2020 Vision: We See It First.” The 2020 Awards, hosted by Isaiah Mustafa, will honor the spectrum of Lee’s extraordinary award-winning work over the past three decades on Saturday, October 24 at 2:00 PM PST during a virtual ceremony.
Awards co-chair and former LMGI president Lori Balton commented, “We are especially grateful that Mr. Lee has brought so much diverse talent into the industry. Actors like Samuel Jackson, Rosie Perez and Giancarlo Esposito, but also so many of us working behind the scenes–Wynn Thomas, Ruth Carter, Ernest Dickerson and Brent Owens to name a few. He is a Trailblazer on a number of levels.”
Lee is an award-winning film director, producer, screenwriter and actor. His production company, 40 Acres and a Mule Filmworks, has produced more than 35 films since 1983. Lee’s work has continually explored race relations, colorism in the Black community, the role of media in contemporary life, urban crime and poverty, and other political issues. He has won numerous accolades for his work, including a BAFTA Award, two Emmy® Awards, two Peabody Awards, and the Cannes Grand Prix. He has also received an honorary BAFTA Award, an honorary César, and The Dorothy and Lillian Gish Prize, among many others.
Lee made his directorial debut in 1986 with She’s Gotta Have It and has since written and directed such films as Do the Right Thing, Mo’ Better Blues, Jungle Fever, Malcolm X, He Got Game, 25th Hour, Inside Man, Chi-Raq, BlacKkKlansman and, most recently, Da 5 Bloods. Lee also acted in 10 of his films.
Lee’s films Do the Right Thing, Malcolm X, 4 Little Girls and She’s Gotta Have It were each selected by the Library of Congress for preservation in the National Film Registry for being “culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant.”
Final online balloting for the LMGI Awards will be held August 1-10, 2020 and winners will be announced at the virtual awards ceremony in October. The LMGI Awards honor the outstanding and creative visual contributions by location professionals in film, television and commercials from around the globe. The LMGI Awards also recognize outstanding service by film commissions for their support “above and beyond” during the production process.
This year, in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, the 7th Annual LMGI Awards breaks with tradition and will be presented on a digital platform, streaming to a worldwide and more inclusive audience. Recipients of the Lifetime Achievement, Humanitarian and the Eva Monley Awards, which recognize and honor industry members who support the work of location professionals, will be announced in the near future.
Committee co-chairs of this year’s LMGI Awards are Balton and John Rakich. Mike Fantasia is LMGI president.
AP sues 3 Trump administration officials, citing freedom of speech
The Associated Press sued three Trump administration officials Friday over access to presidential events, citing freedom of speech in asking a federal judge to stop the 10-day blocking of its journalists.
The lawsuit was filed Friday afternoon in U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C.
The AP says its case is about an unconstitutional effort by the White House to control speech — in this case refusing to change its style from the Gulf of Mexico to the "Gulf of America," as President Donald Trump did last month with an executive order.
"The press and all people in the United States have the right to choose their own words and not be retaliated against by the government," the AP said in its lawsuit, which names White House Chief of Staff Susan Wiles, Deputy Chief of Staff Taylor Budowich and Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt.
"This targeted attack on the AP's editorial independence and ability to gather and report the news strikes at the very core of the First Amendment," the news agency said. "This court should remedy it immediately."
In stopping the AP from attending press events at the White House and Mar-a-Lago, or flying on Air Force One in the agency's customary spot, the Trump team directly cited the AP's decision not to fully follow the president's renaming.
"We're going to keep them out until such time as they agree that it's the Gulf of America," Trump said Tuesday.
This week, about 40 news organizations signed onto a letter organized by the White House Correspondents Association, urging the White House to reverse its policy against the AP.
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