--- title: Spike Lee and Samuel L. Jackson at the Oscars Is Utter Joy description: There was a lot of joy to be had onstage at the 2019 Oscars, but Spike Lee and Samuel L. Jackson's hugging moment may have won the night. canonical: https://time.com/5536574/spike-lee-samuel-l-jackson-oscars-hug/ author: Rachel E. Greenspan article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2019-02-25T04:20:34.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T07:57:40.139Z og:title: This Photo of Spike Lee and Samuel L. Jackson at the Oscars Is Utter Joy og:description: The longtime friends first worked together decades ago og:url: https://time.com/5536574/spike-lee-samuel-l-jackson-oscars-hug/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltec74703fa33147bd/698945c4e76ad20bf36343ad/spike-lee-samuel-l-jackson.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 2405 og:image:height: 1353 og:image:alt: spike-lee-samuel-l-jackson og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: This Photo of Spike Lee and Samuel L. Jackson at the Oscars Is Utter Joy twitter:description: The longtime friends first worked together decades ago twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltec74703fa33147bd/698945c4e76ad20bf36343ad/spike-lee-samuel-l-jackson.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # This Photo of Spike Lee and Samuel L. 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It curates the day's top headlines with TIME's reporting and analysis across politics, world affairs, business, health and culture. It is free to join at time.com/newsletters. #### How do I sign up for The Brief? The Brief is available free at time.com/newsletters, where readers can select it along with any of TIME's other six newsletters. There is no subscription required to receive it. #### Is The Brief free? Yes. The Brief is a free daily email newsletter from TIME. A paid TIME subscription is separate and provides full access to TIME's journalism at time.com/subscribe-agent. #### Who writes The Brief? The Brief is led by editor Richard Hall and draws on reporting from TIME's newsroom. Every edition is assembled by TIME editors rather than generated automatically. by [Rachel E. Greenspan](https://time.com/author/rachel-e-greenspan/) ## Rachel E. Greenspan Feb 25, 2019 4:20 AM UTC  Getty Images (2) by [Rachel E. Greenspan](https://time.com/author/rachel-e-greenspan/) ## Rachel E. Greenspan Feb 25, 2019 4:20 AM UTC There was a lot of joy to be had onstage at the 2019 Oscars, but Spike Lee and Samuel L. Jackson’s hugging moment may have won the night. The stars’ rightful, palpable excitement came as Spike Lee won Best Adapted Screenplay at the Academy Awards for _BlacKkKlansman._ > [](https://twitter.com/TrevellAnderson/status/1099873824323948545) Their big bromance moment didn’t start then, though. Jackson joked that he went off-script to let Lee, a New York Knicks fan, know that his team had finally won a game, before presenting the award with _Captain Marvel_‘s Brie Larson. A film industry legend, Lee was previously nominated in 1990 for Writing — Screenplay for _Do the Right Thing,_ which featured Jackson in one of his first film roles, and in 1998 for his documentary _4 Little Girls_, but had never won an Academy Award. Jackson, who presented the award on Sunday, was nominated in 1994 for his supporting role in _Pulp Fiction._ It wasn’t the first time the longtime friends and collaborators shared a celebration of firsts, either: One of Jackson’s first breakthrough roles was in Spike Lee’s 1991 film _Jungle Fever_, for which the actor won a special jury prize at the Cannes International Film Festival. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/5536574/spike-lee-samuel-l-jackson-oscars-hug/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/5536574/spike-lee-samuel-l-jackson-oscars-hug/"},"headline":"This Photo of Spike Lee and Samuel L. 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