NEW YORK, NY.- The Museum of Modern Art’s 2026 Film Benefit, presented by CHANEL, will honor Academy Award–winning director and producer Steven Spielberg on November 12.

Spielberg is one of the most successful and influential filmmakers in history, having directed more than 35 feature films and earned three Academy Awards and a record nine nominations for Best Director, including wins for Schindler’s List (1993) and Saving Private Ryan (1998). As a producer, he holds the record for the most Best Picture nominations at 14 total, including a win for Schindler’s List. For over 50 years his films—including Lincoln (2012), Bridge of Spies (2015), The Post (2017), West Side Story (2021), and The Fabelmans (2022)—have generated multiple Academy Award nominations. Most recently, he directed this summer's original science fiction hit, Disclosure Day (2026).

Spielberg is one of few to achieve EGOT status, having won at least one Emmy, Grammy, Oscar, and Tony award. He is the recipient of both a Kennedy Center Honor and the Irving G. Thalberg Memorial Award from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. In 2015 President Barack Obama presented him the nation’s highest civilian honor, the Presidential Medal of Freedom, and in 2024 President Joe Biden awarded him the prestigious National Medal of Arts.

Eight of Spielberg’s films are in MoMA’s collection: The Sugarland Express (1974), Jaws (1975), Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977), Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981), E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (1982), Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom (1984), The Color Purple (1985), and Empire of the Sun (1987).





“MoMA’s support of Steven Spielberg extends back over a half-century, beginning when we helped introduce him to audiences as part of New Directors/New Films in 1974,” said Rajendra Roy, MoMA’s Celeste Bartos Chief Curator of Film. “Since then, he has repeatedly demonstrated that being an artist and an entertainer can be simultaneous aspirations, though few have mastered the combination as expertly as he has. His global influence is unparalleled, and his dedication to film preservation is inspiring and completely aligned with the Museum’s mission to save and celebrate film history.”

MoMA will present a special screening series celebrating Spielberg in the Roy and Niuta Titus Theaters.