Spike Lee accidentally made a major blunder at this year's awards ceremony for the Cannes Film Festival.
Spike Lee was the US director and Jury President of the film festival. The gaffe came from an honest misunderstanding.
Upon being prompted by the award show's host, actress Toria Dillier, to reveal the "first prize," the filmmaker answered: "Yes I can. The film that won the Palme d'Or is 'Titane'."
His fellow jury members were unfortunately too late to realise he was reading the wrong winner as actress Melanie Laurent reached out to him and Dillier also shouted, "Wait, wait!"
They all appeared to laugh it off though as French actor Tahar Rahim explained to Lee the mistake.
Spike Lee yelled "English!" to explain the misunderstanding.
At a post-show press conference, Spike Lee said (via Deadline) that he "messed up, simple as that".
"I’m a big sports fan," he continued. "I’m like the guy at the end of the game who misses a free throw or a kick. No apologies.
"The people of 'Titane' said ‘forget about it Spike’, that means a lot to me."
The director of 'Titane' is Julia Ducournau.
This year thus marks the first time in 28 years that the Palme d'Or has gone to a woman (moreover when Jane Campion won back then, she shared the prize with a male director, Chen Kaige).
