Spike Lee’s ‘BlacKkKlansman’ Gets August Release Date and Name Change
Spike Lee’s new film, BlacKkKlansman, is going to be released by Focus Features on August 10th and gets a name change, too (it was previously Black Klansman).
That means the film is not going to hit the fall festivals as most studios’ awards contenders do (save a Get Out once in a great while) but further boosts the strong chance of the film showing up in the Cannes lineup when that announcement is made this week.
That date coincides with the one-year anniversary of the events in Charlottesville, North Carolina where white nationalists and Neo Nazis were met with resistance from counter-protesters that left one protester dead and 20 injured when a Nazi sympathizer ran his car through the crowd.
The film is based on the true story of Ron Stallworth, the first black police officer in Colorado Springs, Colorado, who went undercover in 1978 to infiltrate the Ku Klux Klan. Stallworth is played by John David Washington, son of two-time Oscar winner Denzel Washington (no pressure there). Adam Driver plays Washington’s partner and the film also stars Topher Grace, Laura Harrier, Ryan Eggold, Paul Walter Hauser and Corey Hawkins.
Newly minted Oscar winner Jordan Peele is a producer on the film (with his company Monkeypaw) along with QC Entertainment, Blumhouse, Lee and Shaun Reddick. Spike Lee has been nominated for two Oscars, Best Original Screenplay (for 1989’s Do the Right Thing) and Best Documentary Feature (for 1997’s 4 Little Girls) and was given an Honorary Oscar in 2016.
He is a Rotten Tomatoes-approved critic, accredited by the Cannes Film Festival, Telluride Film Festival, Toronto International Film Festival and more, is a member of the International Cinephile Society (ICS), The Society of LGBTQ Entertainment Critics (GALECA), Critics Choice Association (CCA), San Francisco Bay Area Film Critics Circle (SFBAFCC) and the International Press Academy. Among his many achieved goals with AwardsWatch, he has given a platform to underrepresented writers and critics and supplied them with access to film festivals and the industry and calls the Bay Area his home where he lives with his husband and son.
- 2026 Tribeca Festival Celebrates 25th Anniversary with World Premieres of ‘Hadestown: The Musical,’ ‘Earth, Wind & Fire’ Doc - April 16, 2026
- ‘Beef’ Season 2 Review: Oscar Isaac, Carey Mulligan, Cailee Spaeny and Charles Melton Sink Their Teeth Into Lee Sung Jin’s Meaty Morality Tale [A-] - April 16, 2026
- George Clooney to be Honored at 51st Chaplin Award Gala by Stephen Colbert, Sam Rockwell and More - April 15, 2026
2026 Tonys: Laurie Metcalf (‘Little Bear Ridge Road,’ ‘Death of a Salesman’) May Join Elite Group of Double-Nominated Performers 
2026 Tribeca Festival Celebrates 25th Anniversary with World Premieres of ‘Hadestown: The Musical,’ ‘Earth, Wind & Fire’ Doc 
Director Watch Podcast Ep. 149 – ‘Killer of Sheep’ (Charles Burnett, 1978) 
‘Lee Cronin’s The Mummy’ Review: Careful the Spell You Cast, Children Will Listen (and Sometimes Kill) [C]