STEVEN SPIELBERG made home movies as a child, and completed his first film with a story and actors at the age of 12 in Phoenix, Arizona. At 13, he won a film contest for his 40 minute war movie, "Escape to Nowhere". At 16, he he made the 140 minute film "Firelight". When he was at California State College, he completed five films. 

Born in Cincinnati and raised in the suburbs of Haddonfield, New Jersey and Scottsdale, Arizona, Spielberg started making amateur films while still in his teens, later studying film at California State University, Long Beach. In 1969, first professional work was the 22 minute short Amblin, which was shown at the Atlanta Film Festival, and led to his becoming the youngest director ever to be signed to a long-term deal with a major Hollywood studio at the age of 20. Four years later, he directed the suspense filled telefilm Duel, which garnered both critical and audience attention. He made his feature film directorial debut on The Sugarland Express, from a screenplay he co-wrote. His additional film credits include the successful Raiders of the Lost Ark sequels Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom and Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, Hook and Always. 

In 1994, Spielberg won two Academy Awards for Best Director and Best Picture for the internationally lauded Schindler's List, which received a total of seven Oscars. The film also collected Best Picture honors from the major critics organizations, in addition to seven British Academy Awards, including two for Spielberg. He also won the Golden Globe Award and was honored by his peers with his second Directors Guild of America (DGA) Award, the first having come for The Color Purple. In February 1997, Schindler's List was seen by a television audience of 65 million people in NBC's  unprecedented airing of the film in its entirety, without commercial interruption.   Spielberg has also been recognized with Academy Award nominations for E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial, Raiders of the Lost Ark and Close Encounters of the Third Kind. In addition, he earned DGA Award nominations for those films, as well as Empire of the Sun and Jaws. He is also the recipient of the Lifetime Achievement Award from the American Film  Institute in 1995, and the prestigious Irving G. Thalberg Award from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences in 1987. 

Since forming his own production company, Amblin Entertainment, in 1984, Spielberg has also served as producer or executive producer on more than a dozen films, including such successes as Gremlins, Goonies, the Back to the Future trilogy, Who Framed Roger Rabbit?, An  American Tail, The Land Before Time, The Flintstones and  Casper.  Spielberg has directed, produced, or executive produced eight of the top grossing films of all time. This past summer,  he had back-to-back blockbuster hits with The Lost World:  Jurassic Park, which he directed, and Men in Black, which he  executive produced. The original Jurassic Park, based on    Michael Crichton's bestseller, still ranks worldwide as the  highest grossing film of all time.  In 1994, Spielberg announced the formation of the new studio  DreamWorks SKG, the first new film studio in nearly 50 years, in partnership with Jeffrey  Katzenberg and David Geffen. Amistad is the first film directed by Spielberg under the new  studio banner. He more recently directed DreamWorks' Saving Private Ryan, starring Tom Hanks in 1998. 

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