Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/1506077
LMGI EVA MONLEY AWARD HONOREE 2023 DIRECTOR STEVEN SPIELBERG G lobally acclaimed film director and multi-hyphenate industry giant Steven Spielberg stands atop a body of work that dominates our cultural psyche like the monolithic Devils Tower in Close Encounters of the Third Kind. Adored by audiences and filmmakers for his pioneering work on movies like Hook, Jaws, E.T., Schindler's List and the Indiana Jones franchise, Spielberg's creative vision has garnered career accolades, including three Academy Awards, a Kennedy Center Honor, and the 2015 Presidential Medal of Freedom. As a pioneer of the blockbuster genre and co-founder of DreamWorks Pictures, he continues to terraform the entertainment industry, inspire generations of filmmakers, and fundamentally shape storytelling in the modern age. For more than 50 years, spellbound moviegoers have followed the celebrated director into prehistoric jungles, chilly Atlantic waters, European theaters of war, and tech-dominated features. LMGI is honored to present the 2023 Eva Monley Award to Steven Spielberg for his extraordinary commitment to the art and craft of filmmaking, and his dedication to working with location professionals to build unforgettable worlds. Spielberg's magic lies in anchoring vast subliminal landscapes in carefully curated environments to capture moments that need no context or title: the exhilaration of youth in two-wheeled flight, the boulder-dodging thrill of adventure, nature's power throbbing in a water cup, the crushing pathos of a small girl in a red coat among the ruins of war. As a virtual master with the skill to turn a mound of mashed potatoes into a literal icon, Spielberg has a surgeon's eye for combining artistic and practical needs to draw poignance from ordinary places. He made waves with 1975's Jaws as the first person to ever direct a film on the ocean, applying the tools and lessons from that seaborne production to his later film Amistad. Montréal and Quebec stood in for France in the globe-trotting adventure Catch Me If You Can, while California's Sierra Nevada mountains were the perfect substitute for Northern India in Temple of Doom—filmed in August thanks to a record snow year—and culminating in one of the world's most recognizable action scenes filmed