Spike Lee will be honored at the 61st Chicago International Film Festival, festival organizers announced on Tuesday.
The director, 68, will be in attendance at this year’s fest for “An Evening with Spike Lee” on Oct. 24. He will be presented with the Lifetime Achievement Award, “recognizing an auspicious, bold and visionary collection of films that have helped define and expand on what American cinema is.”
Lee’s latest film, the Denzel Washington-starring Highest 2 Lowest, will screen earlier that day.
Lee has a long relationship with the festival. In 1997, he helped establish the Black Perspectives program with a screening of 4 Little Girls, his documentary about four African American girls slain by a 1963 Ku Klux Klan bombing of an Alabama church, a pivotal event in the American Civil Rights Movement.
He returned to the festival in 2006 to honor Ruby Dee at the fest’s 10th anniversary Black Perspectives Tribute. Other artists honored by the program have included Sidney Poitier, Pam Grier, Forest Whitaker, Alfre Woodard, Morgan Freeman, Viola Davis, Charles Burnett, Steve McQueen, Ruth E. Carter, and Hannah Beachler. This year, the program recognizes Euzhan Palcy for her contributions to cinema.
“Spike Lee’s impact on our culture and the Chicago International Film Festival is indelible and profound,” says artistic director Mimi Plauché. “It is fitting and gratifying that we have the opportunity to honor his incredible body of work and illustrious career, and to celebrate his immense and lasting contribution to the Festival.”
The Chicago International Film Festival runs Oct. 15 to 26, 2025, with film screenings and programs presented at venues across the city. Tickets to both Pee events go on sale at 11 a.m. Wednesday, Oct. 8, 2025, at www.chicagofilmfestival.com.