The 35th Seattle International Film Festival will present the 2009 Golden Space Needle Award For Outstanding Achievement In Directing to Spike Lee.

Lee will take part in an on-stage interview on May 23 followed by a screening of Passing Strange, his original visualisation of the celebrated Broadway hit.

“It is a great privilege for us to present this award to Spike Lee in Seattle,” the festival’s artistic director Carl Spence said. “As someone in the prime of his career with a dynamic body of work to his credit, Spike truly deserves this honour.”

Lee’s broke on to the scene in 1986 with She’s Gotta Have It and earned an Oscar nomination for best original screenplay four years later for Do The Right Thing.

His credits include Jungle Fever, Malcolm X, Clockers, He Got Game, Summer Of Sam, Inside Man, When the Levees Broke, 25th Hour, and Miracle At St Anna.

Francis Ford Coppola will host a special presentation of his new Italian family drama Tetro starring Vincent Gallo, who is also expected to attend the event on June 10.

The Seattle International Film Festival will run from May 21-June 14.