Steven Spielberg was anointed best director at the Golden Globes Tuesday night, taking home the trophy for “The Fabelmans.”
Accepting the award for his autobiographical drama, Spielberg said, “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.”
He continued, “I told this story in parts and parcels all through 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, [and he] started telling me about all these stories about [his] life. And we started a conversation. And the conversation lasted all through ‘Munich,’ all through ‘Lincoln’ and ‘West Side Story.’ And my wife Kate was always saying, ‘You have to tell this.’ And 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.”
Spielberg added, “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 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.”
This year’s best director category, entirely comprised of men, was rounded out by James Cameron for “Avatar: The Way of Water,” Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert for “Everything Everywhere All at Once,” Baz Luhrmann for “Elvis” and Martin McDonagh for “The Banshees of Inisherin.”
The 2023 ceremony marks a return for the Globes, which were boycotted in 2022 by talent, media and creatives — and didn’t air on television — after concerns were brought to light about diversity in the Hollywood Foreign Press Association (which at the time had no Black members) and other accountability issues.
“The Fabelmans,” a semi-autobiographical story about a film-obsessed teenager growing up in Arizona and Northern California, landed five nods, including best motion picture drama and best screenplay, as well as Michelle Williams, who portrays a fictional version of Spielberg’s mother in the movie.
