'Want to keep working': Steven Spielberg gets Golden Bear for lifetime achievement at Berlinale 2023
LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA: Steven Spielberg is the Godfather of Hollywood and the creator of great movies. He is known for blockbuster films like 'Jaws' (1975), 'Close Encounters of the Third Kind' (1977), 'E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial' (1982), 'Jurassic Park' (1993) and the 'Indiana Jones' franchise (1981-present) but also critically acclaimed movies like 'Saving Private Ryan' and 'Schindler's List'.
It was evident that his acceptance speech at the 73rd Berlin Film Festival or "Berlinale 2023" would be as great as his movies. Spielberg won the Lifetime Achievement Award at the film festival that is being held in the Berlinale Palast on Potsdamer Platz from February 16 to February 26. In his award acceptance speech, Spielberg talked about his experiences creating movies and all he has learnt from his lifelong journey as a filmmaker. The 'West Side Story' director also talked about his plans of making more movies in the future.
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Spielberg's 'anxieties and uncertainties'
In his acceptance speech, the filmmaker shared that directing 'Duel' and 'Jaws' felt like something that had happened yesterday. "I know a lot more about moviemaking than I did when I directed my first feature film at 25. But the anxieties and the uncertainties and the fears that tormented me as I began shooting ‘Duel’ have stayed vivid for 50 years, as if no time has passed. And luckily for me, the electric joy I feel on the first day of work as a director is as imperishable as my fears, because there’s no place more like home for me than when I’m working on a set," Spielberg said.
"I also feel a little alarmed to be told I’ve lived a lifetime because I’m not finished, I want to keep working. I want to keep learning and discovering and scaring the shit out of myself, and sometimes the shit out of you,” Spielberg added. “I gotta get back to some of those earlier scarier movies, but that’s another story for later on. As long as there’s joy in it for me, and as long as my audience can find joy and other human values in my films, I’m reluctant to ever say that’s a wrap."
Breaking records
Spielberg also discussed his plans of making movies till he turns 100, and plans on breaking the record of a Portuguese filmmaker, Manoel de Oliveira, who directed his last film at the age of 106. Steven went on to talk about how the genetics of a longer life is gifted to him by his father, Arnold Spielberg, who lived till 103. Hence, his lifetime dream of making movies till he's 106 is a definite possibility. Steven continued to play homage and said he owes "an incalculable debt to German cinema," and continued by paying tribute to all the extraordinary German directors, F.W. Murnau, Ernst Lubitsch, Douglas Sirk and Fritz Lang, who inspired him to take a more scenic route while creating extraordinary films. Spielberg mentioned that winning the Lifetime Achievement Award holds a special connotation for him, "If this honor means that my work has found a home in Germany, then tonight, I feel like I’m home too," Spielberg said. "This honor has particular meaning for me because I’m a Jewish director. I’d like to believe that this is a small moment in a much larger, ongoing effort of healing the broken places of history – what Jews call Tikkun Olam, the repairing and restoring of the world."