There are few directors in movie history that have made the impact that Steven Spielberg has made on the movie going experience. Born in 1946, Spielberg got started in film at an incredibly young age, making movies as young as 12 years old using a 8mm video recorder. His obsession quickly led him to Hollywood where he worked his way onto the Universal Studios lot. Eventually, he began working on any television show that would come his way. The rest, as they say, his history.
Throughout his long career, Spielberg has made almost every kind of movie, from crowd-pleasing action movies to thoughtful meditations on life and everything in between. For his efforts, Spielberg has been nominated for a boat load of awards, so many that he might need a bigger boat (get it?)
2023 is yet another big year for Spielberg, as his newest film The Fablemans is nominated for seven Academy Awards, including Best Picture, Best Screenplay, and Best Director. If Spielberg is able to take home Best Director, it will be his third Academy Award in that category and fourth overall. It is clear that even at 76 years old, Spielberg remains at the top of his game. There are few directors for whom you could compile a list of movies nominated for any award much less a list of movies nominated for the Best Director Award at the Academy Awards and yet, here we are. In anticipation of the 95th Academy Awards, which take place next month, we have ranked every movie for which Spielberg has received a Best Director nomination, ranked from worst to best.
9. Munich (2005)
The first film on our list is the 2005 spy drama Munich. As you’ll learn throughout our list, Spielberg is one of the most prolific filmmakers of all time, consistently creating some of the biggest movies in Hollywood history. 2005 saw him release not only Munich but War of the Worlds as well, a feat that cannot be overlooked. While War of the Worlds was a big-budget sci-fi epic, Munich is much more serious fare, based on the true story of 11 Israeli athletes who were kidnapped and murdered at the 1972 Summer Olympics. If War of the Worlds falls more under the crowd-pleasing category of Spielberg movies than Munich is closer to something like Schindler’s List (a movie we will get to later). Though Spielberg would not take home the little gold statue for his work here, the film was nominated for five Academy Awards in total.
8. West Side Story (2021)
Even Steven Spielberg is not immune from reboot culture, taking his swing at one of the biggest, most celebrated musicals of all time. 2019’s West Side Story stars up-and-coming performers like Ansel Elgort, Rachel Zegler, Ariana DeBose, and Mike Faist are some of the more iconic roles in film history. Spielberg mostly remains loyal to the original text, highlighting the doomed love story between Tony and Maria, but does throw in some classic Spielberg flourishes to keep things interesting. Though Spielberg would not win the Academy Award for West Side Story, Debose would win for Best Actress in a Supporting Role.
7. Lincoln (2012)
A biographical movie about Abraham Lincoln starring Daniel Day-Lewis and directed by Spielberg is practically Academy Award catnip. There was no way this movie wasn’t going to be nominated for a ton of awards, even if it wasn’t necessarily successful. As it turns out, it was quite successful, portraying one of America’s greatest presidents in a way few could manage to pull off. Based on Doris Kearns Goodwin’s nonfiction book Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln, the film is mostly focused on Lincoln’s final four months, and his quest to pass the 13th Amendment to the United States Constitution, abolishing slavery. To say Day-Lewis disappears into the role would be an understatement, which is why it was no surprise he would take home the Academy Award for Best Actor for his efforts. Â
6. Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1997)
1997’s Close Encounters Of The Third Kind is a quiet and thoughtful exploration of the obsession and the supernatural and served as Spielberg’s follow up to his breakout hit, Jaws. In many ways, this was the movie Spielberg was preparing to make his whole life, featuring ideas he’s put on film back during his days making home movies. Starring Richard Dreyfuss as Roy Neary, a man who has a life-changing encounter with alien life, Close Encounters was an overwhelming success, making over $300 million on a budget of less than $20 million and cementing Spielberg as the commercial director of the 1970s. Though he wouldn’t take home the trophy for his work on Close Encounters Of The Third Kind, it would establish him as a force to be reckoned with on the award circuit for years to come.
5. E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (1982)
In keeping with the themes within the prior movie on our list, Spielberg once again explores the supernatural, this time arriving at something a little more family friendly and childlike in its wonder. Written by Melissa Mathison, E.T.: the Extra-Terrestrial is a story that centers on a young boy named Elliot who comes across an alien left behind on earth. Whether this little animatronic creature is adorable or terrifying is something we will leave up to the reader, but it is hard to deny just how easily he is able to worm his way into your heart. It is hard to overstate the effect of a movie like E.T.: the Extra-Terrestrial. Not only did the movie surpass Star Wars to become, at the time, the highest grossing movie ever, but it remains a cultural touchstone, with the words “E.T. phone home” immediately recognizable.Â
4. Schindler’s List (1993)
Up until this point, Spielberg had been known mostly for the kind of crowd-pleasing fare he’d done so well in his early years, but Schindler’s List significantly changed that. Based on the 1982 novel Schindler’s Ark by Australian novelist Thomas Keneally, this movie was concerned with weighty themes and, obviously, emotionally intense subject matter. In fact, Spielberg himself was wary of making a film about the Holocaust, an event that directly affected his family. For years, he’d been kicking around the idea and offering it to other filmmakers. Thankfully, he eventually decided the time was right and tapped Liam Neeson, Ralph Fiennes and Ben Kingsley to star. The movie would go on to win Best Picture and earn Spielberg his first Best Director win. Â
3. The Fablemans (2022)
Number three on our list is reserved for Spielberg’s latest entry into the Award’s race, 2023’s coming-of-age tale The Fablemans. Even among Spielberg’s long and storied career, The Fablemans stands out as a particularly personal tale, telling the heavily biographical story of a boy growing up in Phoenix who learns to express himself through movie-making. Starring Gabriel LaBelle, Michelle Williams, Paul Dano, Seth Rogen, and Judd Hirsch, The Fablemans has received high praise from critics, who appreciate the revealing nature of the story. At this point in the awards race, The Fablemans seems likely to take home at least a couple of Academy Awards with Spielberg surely in the running to win yet another Academy Award for Best Director.
2. Saving Private Ryan (1998)
By 1998, Spielberg had solidified himself as an important adult filmmaker rather than simply a crowd-pleaser, but even by those standards, Saving Private Ryan was especially gnarly in its depiction of the Battle of Normandy in World War II. Featuring a star-studded cast of Tom Hanks, Tom Sizemore, Edward Burns, Barry Pepper, Giovanni Ribisi, Vin Diesel, Adam Goldberg, and, of course, Matt Damon as the titular Private, this is a movie of epic scale and proportion. Telling the story of a squad tasked with saving a single soldier for the good of morale, this is a film which attempts to depict the chaos of war as much as or more than the heroism. For his effort Spielberg took home his second Academy Award for Best Director.
1. Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981)
As good as the rest of the movies on this list continue to be even after a dozen rewatches, nothing quite holds up like Raiders of the Lost Ark, the first in the Indiana Jones film series. There are a lot of reasons this movie works; wonderful score, impeccable direction, swashbuckling story, melted Nazis, etc. But all pale in comparison to the man himself. Indiana Jones is, to put it simply, the greatest action hero of all time and it’s not particularly close.
Spielberg flexes his muscles as an action director, owning complicated sequences in a way few can manage, all while maintaining the film’s focus on story above all else. Then there’s Harrison Ford, who might just be the perfect star for any franchise and is perfectly cast as the whip-smart archaeologist with a heart of gold. Sure, the next three movies don’t quite stack up, but that doesn’t take anything away from this almost perfect movie. Though Spielberg would not ultimately win the Academy Award for Best Director for his work on Raiders of the Lost Ark, history has shown how important of a movie this truly is.
