Steven Spielberg (76) received a special honor. The director was awarded the Honorary Golden Bear for his life’s work at the Berlinale on Tuesday evening (February 21). U2 frontman Bono (62) took over the laudatory speech and presented him with the award. “Tonight Steven Spielberg receives the Golden Bear for the right reasons,” said the musician on stage, according to “Deadline”. “But his life’s work is not just his work. It’s his life, his family.”
“I’m a little disturbed when I’m told that I’ve lived a lifetime because I’m not done and I want to keep working,” Spielberg said in his lifetime achievement award speech. “I want to keep learning and exploring and scaring myself to death and scaring you to death. I have to go back to some of those earlier scary movies, but that’s another story.”
As long as he enjoys his work and his audience can find happiness and other human values in his films, he won’t stop, the director, producer and screenwriter said. The honor has a very special meaning for him, “because I’m a Jewish director. I want to believe that this is a small moment and a much larger, ongoing effort to heal the broken places in history.”
Spielberg appeared on the red carpet before the honorary bear was awarded and was then greeted with standing ovations lasting several minutes in the Berlinale Palast. He entered the hall accompanied by his wife Kate Capshaw (69).
Spielberg also presented his partially autobiographical work The Fabelmans at the Berlinale. The work is loosely based on Spielberg’s childhood. It’s about Sammy Fabelman (Gabriel LaBelle, 20), who grows up in post-war Arizona and gets the idea of becoming a film director after a spectacular train accident.
“The Fabelmans” has been nominated for seven Oscars and will be released in German cinemas on March 9th.
