Steven Spielberg holds the rare distinction of being one of just a handful of film directors who is practically a household name, known by the general public and not just cinephiles. And there is a major reason for that. He has been delivering films in multiple genres that tend to not only be critically acclaimed but popular with the masses.
Now he has accomplished a feat that no one else has. He is the first director to be nominated in the Best Directing category of the Academy Awards/Oscars in six different decades. He is up for the prize this year for his lavish musical West Side Story. This was the first musical that Spielberg has ever crafted in his long career.
His first nomination came in 1978 for Close Encounters of the Third Kind. Following that, he was nominated in the Directing category for Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981), E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (1982), Schindler’s List (1993), Saving Private Ryan (1998), Munich (2005), and Lincoln (2012). His first win came in 1994 for Saving Private Ryan. He followed that up with a win in 1999 for Schindler’s List.
Schindler’s List also won for Best Picture that year. Prior to all of these wins, in 1987, he was presented with the Irving G. Thalberg Memorial Award. In all, he has won 17 Academy Awards.
With this nod for West Side Story, Spielberg edges past Martin Scorsese who has been nominated in five different decades, for Raging Bull (1980), The Last Temptation of Christ (1988), Goodfellas (1990), Gangs of New York (2002), The Aviator (2004), The Departed (2006), Hugo (2011), The Wolf of Wall Street (2013), and The Irishman (2019). Although The Irishman was released in 2019, it was nominated in 2020, which counts as a new decade. That means that in order for Scorses to tie with Spielberg, he would need to be nominated at some point after 2030. I mean, that’s possible, but Scorses is 79 now.
What is your favorite Spielberg film?
