Barry Jenkins has paid tribute to Spike Lee after the veteran filmmaker received his first best director Oscar nomination.
The Moonlight director, who is also among the nominees this year for his adapted screenplay of If Beale Street Could Talk, said he was overjoyed to see the Do The Right Thing director honoured for his work on BlacKkKlansman.
And the biggest congrats to the 🐐 — ran into this portrait last night in Paris, couldn’t help but grab a selfie; no words necessary. And by every measure, this man — so necessary 👌🏿🙌🏿🙏🏿 pic.twitter.com/YXuzAwNdk3
— Barry Jenkins (@BarryJenkins) January 22, 2019
He told the Press Association: “There are just some people who bring me joy and I think Spike brings me joy.
“His enthusiasm at his nomination brought me so much joy because I think for a filmmaker who has given so much to the culture, both in cinema and the culture of blackness all over the world, to see his work recognised in the way that it should was just quite amazing.”
Lee’s previous Oscar nominations were for his screenplay for 1989’s Do The Right Thing and his 1997 documentary 4 Little Girls.
Lee is the sixth black filmmaker to be Oscar-nominated for directing, while Jenkins was the fourth, for his work on best picture winner Moonlight.
He jointly won the Academy Award for best adapted screenplay with Tarell Alvin McCraney for the film.
No black filmmaker has ever won best director.
Jenkins said he was delighted to be recognised by the Academy again, with a nomination for his screenplay, adapted from James Baldwin’s novel, while star Regina King is nominated in the best supporting actress category and composer Nicholas Britell is nominated for his score.
On nomination day, Jenkins shared a photograph of the notes slipped under his hotel room door, informing him of each nomination and said: “We started it on Moonlight, I just happened to be in Europe whenever the nominations come out and I was so tired and we were in Amsterdam and I was like ‘I don’t want to watch this live, this doesn’t make any sense’ and so I just took a nap and woke up to these notes under the door.
I’m always overseas when noms come out and I don’t watch. Instead my publicist slips notes under my door and I find them when I return. MUCH love from the @BealeStreet family to QUEEN @ReginaKing and my right hand @NicholasBritell on their Oscar Noms!!! pic.twitter.com/qds8u9N6jK
— Barry Jenkins (@BarryJenkins) January 22, 2019
“Then we did the same thing (this year) and it’s wonderful. I like the spread of the nominations, between Nick and his score and Regina and her performance and then Mr Baldwin with the adapted screenplay nomination, which is a really wonderful affirmation of the work we put into the film.”
If Beale Street Could Talk will be released in UK cinemas on February 14.