Steven Spielberg is an American film director. Over the course of his career, he has directed more than 50 films, won 29 Oscars, and broken numerous box office records. Spielberg was born in Cincinnati, Ohio, on December 18, 1946, the eldest of four children. His father was a computer engineer and his mother a pianist. He had a passion for film since childhood. As a boy, he made short home movies and took part in local film competitions. In 1969, he won a prize at the Atlanta Film Festival for his short film Amblin’. Universal took note of him, offering him a seven-year contract. He was the youngest director the prestigious studio had ever taken on. In 1971 he made his directorial debut with a made-for-TV cat-and-mouse thriller entitled Duel. Spielberg achieved international success in 1975 with the film Jaws. This tense thriller engages one of man’s deepest fears, telling the story of a diabolical, man-eating shark.

In 1977 he directed the groundbreaking science fiction film Close Encounters of the Third Kind. It differed from other science fiction films by depicting aliens not as a threat, but as friendly, poetic and delicate beings who communicate through musical tones and travel on a spaceship immersed in light. Spielberg would return to this theme in 1982 with E.T., The Extra-Terrestrial. This modern fable told the story of the relationship between a kind and harmless alien and a young boy and his siblings. It won four Oscars and was a box office hit. In the 1980s, Spielberg lent his talent to making the highly entertaining Indiana Jones trilogy. The saga won six Oscars. At the same time, he also confronted the problem of racism in the film The Color Purple, released in 1985. In the 1990s, he made visual rollercoasters like Hook (1991) and Jurassic Park (1993). In 1993, Spielberg addressed the horrors of the Holocaust in Schindler’s List, which told the story of a Nazi businessman who used his connections to save Jewish lives. The film earned Spielberg an Oscar. With proceeds from the film, Spielberg, who is Jewish, founded the Shoah Foundation, an association that documents testimony from Holocaust survivors.

Spielberg won his second Oscar for Best Director five years later for Saving Private Ryan, a war movie set during World War II.
The scene of the American landings in Normandy is considered one of the most realistic in the history of cinema. In the past few years, he has done action-comedy [Catch Me If You Can (2002)], science fiction [Minority Report (2002), War of the Worlds (2005)], and historical thriller [Munich (2005)] all equally well. In 2008, Indiana Jones returned to confront creatures dear to Spielberg’s heart: extraterrestrials. [Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull (2008)] The film marked a return to the saga 19 years after the first episode was released. Today Steven Spielberg, who has also been a producer for a number of years, is the undisputed king of Hollywood. His work is almost always well received by critics and the public, and he grosses millions at the box office. Most importantly, he is adept at reconciling commitment, entertainment and the search for new vocabulary in film.