Director Spike Lee surprised Howard Drossin with recognition during the standing ovation for his score at the Cannes Film Festival premiere of Highest 2 Lowest. Watch here.
The latest Spike Lee Joint, premiered at the Cannes Film Festival on May 19, 2025 and received a 6 minute standing ovation. Spike was kind and generous enough to recognize Howard Drossin and pull him up with the cast for this incredible moment.
The film’s score was recorded in New York with a full 90-piece orchestra, Spike Lee reunited with composer Howard Drossin, who previously had written the orchestrations for many of the director’s projects including BlacKkKlansman, Chi-Raq and Inside Man.
“For Highest 2 Lowest, Spike wanted a sweeping orchestral score, occasionally interwoven with the intimacy of a jazz trio,” Drossin explained. “After I read the script, I wrote a bunch of themes on piano and sent them to Spike. Our process is very collaborative. During spotting sessions, we discuss instrumentation and tone for each scene. Spike has a great way of speaking about music that makes it easy to translate into score.”
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Video courtesy of the Cannes Film Festival and France TV.
(Right) Highest 2 Lowest Composer Howard Drossin with Editor Barry Alexander Brown at the Cannes Film Festival. Photo by Verane Pick Brown.
(Below) From left to right, Howard Drossin, Joyce Pierpoline, Verane Pick Brown and Barry Alexander Brown.
