Lee was joined in the Cannes press conference by Wright and Ilfenesh Hadera, who plays King’s poised and skeptical wife Pam. Highest 2 Lowest marks Lee’s first collaboration with one-time muse Washington since 2006’s Inside Man.

Spike Lee and Denzel Washington have walked a long road together. The director and actor’s collaboration has run for 35 years, starting with “Mo’Better Blues” and including the seminal “Malcolm X.” But one thing they’ve never done is ascend the red carpet at the Cannes Film Festival as comrades in arms.

Spike Lee is calling out a bad call from the Academy more than 30 years later: The auteur, along with most cinephiles, is convinced that Denzel Washington was snubbed for the Best Actor Oscar for "Malcolm X.