Steven Spielberg Wins Best Director for The Fabelmans

Though it took some time for The Fabelmans to come to fruition, Spielberg says he’s “really, really glad” he finally made the deeply personal film.

20th Century Studios

Steven Spielberg has won the 2023 Golden Globe for Best Director of a Motion Picture.

Nominated this year for his deeply personal, semi-autobiographical The Fabelmans, the award marks Spielberg’s third Best Director win and his 20th nomination. The legendary filmmaker previously took home the statuette in 1994 for Schindler’s List and again in 1999 for Saving Private Ryan.

In his acceptance speech, Spielberg said that although he’s tried to put bits and pieces of the personal story into several films throughout his lengthy career, he found himself “hiding” from the story until he could portray it through the fictitious Fabelmans.

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“I’ve been hiding from this story since I was 17 years old. I put a lot of things in my way of this story. I told this story in parts and parcels all throughout my career. E.T. has a lot to do with this story. Close Encounters has a lot to do with this story. But I never had the courage to hit this story head-on until [Fabelmans’ co-writer] Tony Kushner [and I] were working on Munich a long time ago.”

With the beginnings of The Fabelmans bouncing around in Spielberg and Kushner’s heads, the filmmaker says that the COVID-19 pandemic was the final push to get the film moving forward.

“During COVID, I didn’t know if any of us were going to have the chance to tell any of our stories again in March, April, May of 2020,” he added.

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It Took Time to Tell Fabelmans Story, But Spielberg is ‘Really, Really Happy’ He Finally Did

Amblin Entertainment

Ready to finally bite the bullet on The Fabelmans, Spielberg laid his past bare for the semi-autobiographical drama. Starring Gabriel LaBelle as a young “Sammy Fabelman,” the film follows the aspiring filmmaker through the growing pains of childhood and family secrets.

“Everything I’ve done up to this point has made me ready to finally be honest about the fact that it’s not easy to be a kid,” the director continued, adding that his current success was not always the case.

“The fact that everybody sees me as a success story…but nobody really knows who we are until we’re courageous enough to tell everyone who we are. And I spent a lot of time trying to figure out when I could tell that story and I figured out when I turned 74 years old. I said, ‘You better do it now.’ And I’m really, really happy I did.”

With Michelle Williams, Paul Dano, and Julia Butters rounding out the Fabelman clan, The Fabelmans will be released on Blu-Ray, DVD, and 4K UHD on Feb. 14, 2023.

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