Steven Spielberg
American filmmaker (born 1946)
A director's score is the sum of their films' composite canon scores — methodology.
- Born
- December 18, 1946 · Cincinnati
- Nationality
- United States
- Work
- film director, film producer, actor, art collector
The man who taught movies how to want an audience
Every argument about what popular cinema owes its audience eventually becomes an argument about Steven Spielberg. He is, by the plain description in his Wikipedia entry, a major figure of the New Hollywood era, a pioneer of the modern blockbuster, and the highest-grossing film director of all time — three facts that critics spent thirty years treating as a single accusation. The accusation has aged badly. What Spielberg actually built was a grammar: where to put the camera so a viewer feels awe rather than merely sees a wonder, how to hold a face one beat past comfort, how to make a crowd of strangers breathe together. Directors who despise his sentiment still shoot in his syntax.
Cincinnati to Universal
Born in Cincinnati on December 18, 1946 to a concert pianist and an electrical engineer, he grew up in New Jersey, then Phoenix, shooting 8mm films as a Boy Scout — including a forty-minute war picture, Escape to Nowhere, at thirteen. USC's film school rejected him for mediocre grades; he went to Cal State Long Beach instead, and in 1968 Universal handed the twenty-one-year-old a seven-year directing contract on the strength of a 26-minute short, Amblin'. Television came first — a Night Gallery segment in 1969, then Columbo and the TV movie Duel (1971). His theatrical debut, The Sugarland Express (1974), lost money and won Best Screenplay at Cannes. Then Jaws (1975) broke the domestic box-office record and, with it, the industry's release calendar.
The turn toward gravity was slower than legend allows: The Color Purple (1985) drew eleven Oscar nominations, Empire of the Sun (1987) six, and neither won him the directing prize. That came in 1993, when Jurassic Park passed E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (1982) as the highest-grossing film ever and Schindler's List took seven Academy Awards, including Best Picture and his first Best Director. In 1994 he founded the Shoah Foundation to record survivor testimony and co-founded DreamWorks; Saving Private Ryan (1998) brought a second directing Oscar. Three competitive Academy Awards in all, plus the Thalberg, an honorary knighthood, and the Presidential Medal of Freedom.
What our numbers say
Our library holds 28 of his films and ranks him #2 among all directors at a composite score of 38.50, behind Scorsese and ahead of Godard. But the shape of that total is unusual. Schindler's List stands at #8 overall with a score of 6.12 — well clear of his next-best film, E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial at #51 — while Jaws (#92) and Raiders of the Lost Ark (#96) trail well behind. The blockbusters that defined the industry are, by critical consensus, his minor work: Jurassic Park sits at #2372, Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom at #3817. And The Fabelmans (2022) enters at #294 with five list appearances in barely three years — a late film the canon is still deciding about, and, to my eye, deciding in his favor.
Where to start
Jaws to see the machine invented, E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial to see it aimed at the heart, Schindler's List for the reason the doubters conceded, and The Fabelmans for the confession underneath all of it.
Films in our library, ranked
Ranked by composite canon score across 20+ authoritative lists, awards and polls — our ordering, with every placement citing its evidence on the film's page.
- 1
1993 · United States · war, biography, drama
Oscar Best Picture winner 1993 · BAFTA Best Film winner 1994 · AFI 100 (2007) #8
6.1214 citations - 2
1982 · United States · sci-fi, drama
Kinema Junpo Best Ten (International) 1982 #1 · Oscar Best Picture nominee 1982 · AFI 100 (2007) #24
4.1713 citations - 3
1975 · United States · thriller, horror, adventure
Empire 500 (2008) #5 · Sight & Sound 2022 directors' poll #62 · Oscar Best Picture nominee 1975
3.5211 citations - 4
1981 · United States · action
Empire 500 (2008) #2 · Oscar Best Picture nominee 1981 · Sight & Sound 2022 critics' poll #211
3.4711 citations - 5
1998 · United States · war, drama, action
Kinema Junpo Best Ten (International) 1998 #2 · Oscar Best Picture nominee 1998 · AFI 100 (2007) #71
2.669 citations - 6
2022 · United States · drama
TIFF People's Choice winner 2022 · Oscar Best Picture nominee 2022 · Cahiers du Cinéma annual top 10 2023 #4
2.275 citations - 7
1977 · United States · sci-fi, adventure, drama
Kinema Junpo Best Ten (International) 1978 #4 · Empire 500 (2008) #59 · AFI 100 (1998) #64
1.838 citations - 8
1985 · United States · drama
Ebert's annual top 10 1985 #1 · Oscar Best Picture nominee 1985 · Kinema Junpo Best Ten (International) 1986 #6
1.755 citations - 9
2001 · United States · sci-fi, drama
Sarris's annual top 10 2001 #1 · Film Comment year-end poll 2001 #5 · Rolling Stone 100 Best of the 21st Century #61
1.747 citations - 10
2012 · United States · war, biography, drama
Oscar Best Picture nominee 2012 · Cahiers du Cinéma annual top 10 2013 #6 · Film Comment year-end poll 2012 #9
1.595 citations - 11
2017 · United States · thriller, drama, biography
Kinema Junpo Best Ten (International) 2018 #2 · Oscar Best Picture nominee 2017 · Cahiers du Cinéma annual top 10 2018 #6
1.443 citations - 12
2015 · United States / Germany / India · war, biography
Kinema Junpo Best Ten (International) 2016 #3 · Oscar Best Picture nominee 2015 · Film Comment year-end poll 2015 #20
1.183 citations - 13
2005 · United States / France / Canada · thriller, drama
Oscar Best Picture nominee 2005 · Ebert's annual top 10 2005 #3 · Film Comment year-end poll 2005 #17
0.943 citations - 14
1987 · United States / United Kingdom · war, drama
Sarris's annual top 10 1987 #1 · NYT Best 1,000 Movies · Sarris's annual top 10 1989 #8
0.823 citations - 15
2011 · United States · war, drama
Oscar Best Picture nominee 2011 · Kinema Junpo Best Ten (International) 2012 #7
0.782 citations - 16
2002 · United States · sci-fi, action, thriller
Ebert's annual top 10 2002 #1 · Film Comment year-end poll 2002 #11
0.782 citations - 17
2021 · United States · romance, musical
Oscar Best Picture nominee 2021 · Kinema Junpo Best Ten (International) 2022 #8
0.772 citations - 18
1993 · United States · sci-fi, adventure, action
National Film Registry (inducted 2018) · Empire 500 (2008) #232 · Edgar Wright's 1,000 favorite movies
0.533 citations - 19
1971 · United States · thriller, action
Kinema Junpo Best Ten (International) 1973 #8 · Edgar Wright's 1,000 favorite movies
0.432 citations - 20
1984 · United States · action, adventure
Empire 500 (2008) #233 · Edgar Wright's 1,000 favorite movies
0.302 citations - 21
1974 · United States · crime, film-noir, drama
NYT Best 1,000 Movies · Edgar Wright's 1,000 favorite movies
0.282 citations - 22
1989 · United States · comedy, action, adventure
Empire 500 (2008) #306
0.181 citation - 230.181 citation
- 240.181 citation
- 25
2008 · United States · action, adventure
Empire 500 (2008) #453
0.171 citation - 260.161 citation
- 270.161 citation
- 280.111 citation
Complete filmography
All 46 directorial credits recorded on Wikidata, in chronological order; films in our library link to their canon-score page.
- 1961Escape to Nowhere
- 1964Firelight
- 1968Amblin'
- 1971Duel
- 1971Murder by the Book
- 1972Something Evil
- 1973Watch Dog
- 1974The Sugarland Express
- 1975Jaws
- 1977Close Encounters of the Third Kind
- 19791941
- 1981Raiders of the Lost Ark
- 1982E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial
- 1983Twilight Zone: The Movie
- 1984Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom
- 1985The Color Purple
- 1987Empire of the Sun
- 1989Always
- 1989Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade
- 1991Hook
- 1993Jurassic Park
- 1993Schindler's List
- 1997Amistad
- 1997The Lost World: Jurassic Park
- 1998Saving Private Ryan
- 1999The Unfinished Journey
- 2001A.I. Artificial Intelligence
- 2002Catch Me If You Can
- 2002Minority Report
- 2004The Terminal
- 2005Munich
- 2005War of the Worlds
- 2008Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull
- 2011The Adventures of Tintin
- 2011War Horse
- 2012Lincoln
- 2013Jurassic Park 3D
- 2015Bridge of Spies
- 2016The BFG
- 2017The Post
- 2018Living Space
- 2018Ready Player One
- 2021West Side Story
- 2022The Fabelmans
- 2026Disclosure Day
- —The Kidnapping of Edgardo Mortara