Steven Spielberg documentary set to debut at New York Film Festival

Last Updated on August 2, 2021

On Monday, the Film Society of Lincoln Center announced a few noteworthy additions to the upcoming New York Film Festival. Included in the lineup is the Susan Lacy-directed Steven Spielberg documentary, which is set to highlight several milestones along the famed-filmmaker's personal life and career.

From what we've heard, the film will chronicle Spielberg's early love of movie making while being a scrappy visionary living in an all-American suburb. From there, the in-depth presentation will continue onto the legendary director's rise to fame with the making of JAWS, in addition to when he'd established his foothold in the industry by building the film-and-TV empire Dreamworks Studios. Furthermore, the film will also include interviews with Francis Coppola, Brian De Palma, George Lucas, Martin Scorsese, Tom Hanks, John Williams and Spielberg's longtime DP Janusz Kamnski, as well as Spielberg's family members. Both Spielberg and Lacy are expected to be in attendance at the festival.

Alongside the Spielberg documentary, Jennifer Lebeau’s TROUBLE NO MORE, a concert film that features unseen footage from Bob Dylan’s ’79-’80 tour with the words of Luc Sante; and Susan Froemke’s Metropolitan Opera doc THE OPERA HOUSE. Other highlights scheduled to appear at the fest will include Claude Lanzmann’s four-film series FOUR SISTERS, created from 1970s interviews with four female Holocaust survivors; Rory Kennedy’s WITHOUT A NET, which examines the many technologically under-funded schools in the U.S.; and a newly-restored screening of G.W. Pabst’s silent masterpiece PANDORA'S BOX, which will be accompanied by a new orchestral score by Jonathan Ragonese. 

As if that's not enough, also to be featured at the show is a "career-spanning" chat with Kate Winslet, as well as a master class with  Vittorio Storaro and Ed Lachman — the cinematographers of WONDER WHEEL and WONDERSTRUCK, respectively.

The 55th New York Film Festival is set to run Sept. 28-Oct. 15 with Richard Linklater's LAST FLAG FLYING set to open the show. Closing the event will be a screening of Woody Allen's WONDER WHEEL with a showcase centered on Todd Haynes' WONDERSTRUCK as its centerpiece. 

If none of these films are of a particular interest you, don't worry, Spielberg's READY PLAYER ONE is set to debut in theaters on March 30, 2018. That's just a few months away, for those of you who prefer his more fantasy-oriented work.