2022
Spielberg realizes a long-held dream and directs The Fabelmans, a film based on his formative teenage years.
He co-writes the screenplay with Tony Kushner, who last wrote the script for West Side Story. The script is written during the COVID 19 lockdown and is completed in just two months. A.I. Artificial Intelligence (2001) was the last film Spielberg also wrote the screenplay for.
Set in the 1950s and 1960s, the film’s story is inspired by sometimes traumatizing memories from the director’s childhood. From the point of view of Sammy, a young film enthusiast, we follow the fictional Fabelman family as they move from New Jersey to Phoenix, Arizona to California.
At high school, he encounters anti-Semitism and learns how to compensate for his physical inferiority to his fellow students by enlisting them in his amateur films and gaining control over them through his directing, photography and editing.
The female lead, based on Spielberg’s mother Leah, is played by Michelle Williams (Brokeback Mountain). The young Spielberg (Sammy in the film version) is portrayed by Gabriel LaBelle.
Other cast members include Seth Rogen, Paul Dano and Judd Hirsch. Cult director David Lynch makes a cameo appearance as director John Ford.
Filming starts in the summer of 2021.
The crew includes longtime collaborators such as Janusz Kaminski (director of photography), Rick Carter (production design) and John Williams (score). Sarah Broshar joins the crew as film editor (along with Spielberg’s long-term editor Michael Kahn).
Spielberg dedicates the film to his parents in the credits: For Leah. For Arnold. He also thanks his three sisters Anne, Sue and Nancy.
After his parents’ divorce, Spielberg stuck by his mother, while his relationship with his father remained distant for a long time. Films influenced by this period include E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial, Hook, Jurassic Park, Lincoln and Catch Me If You Can.
The Fabelmans has its world premiere at the Toronto Film Festival on September 10, 2022, receiving two standing ovations and winning the festival’s People’s Choice Award.
The film’s German premiere occurs at the 73rd Berlin International Film Festival on February 21, 2023. Spielberg is awarded an Honorary Golden Bear for lifetime achievement. Selected films from his career are screened in a festival tribute.
Berlinale director duo Mariette Rissenbeek and Carlo Chatrian explain the rationale for honoring Spielberg:
“In the course of his incredible career, Steven Spielberg has not only enthralled generations of viewers around the world, but has also given new meaning to "cinema” as a dream factory. Whether it’s the eternally magical world of adolescents or our reality forever shaped by history; his films transport us to another plane where the screen provides the appropriate surface to unleash our emotions.“
Despite outstanding reviews, Spielberg’s The Fabelmans fails to draw audiences to theatres (Spielberg’s second consecutive box-office disappointment after West Side Story). With production costs of $40 million, the film only grosses $44 million worldwide.
At the Golden Globe Awards, The Fabelmans wins in two categories:
- Best Motion Picture - Drama
- Best Director.
The film receives nominations for:
- Best Performance by an Actress in a Motion Picture - Drama (Michelle Williams)
- Best Score - Motion Picture
- Best Screenplay - Motion Picture.
At the Academy Awards, the film is nominated in seven categories (winning in none of them):
- Best Motion Picture of the Year
- Best Achievement in Directing
- Best Original Screenplay
- Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role (Michelle Williams)
- Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role (Judd Hirsch)
- Best Achievement in Production Design
- Best Original Score.