The director with awards coming out of his ears is getting the ultimate props from the Directors Guild of America: the Lifetime Achievement Award, formerly known as the D.W. Griffith Award, the filmmakers union's highest honor, the guild announced Monday.
But the überdirector isn't taking about his latest prize just yet. "He's going to save it all for when he gets the award," his spokesman says. The award will be presented during the 52nd Annual DGA Awards on March 11.
The one person who is talking, is DGA President Jack Shea. "It is truly astonishing that Steven Spielberg, with so many great films still ahead of him, is already such a perfect choice for the ultimate directorial honor," Shea says of the man responsible for such latter-day classics as Saving Private Ryan, Schindler's List, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, Jaws, Raiders of the Lost Ark and E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial.
"Although he is still in the prime of his career, Steven has already won a record three DGA Feature Film Awards and been nominated a record nine times in that category," Shea continues. "And it is particularly fitting that the DGA, an organization of people who truly understand what a monumental feat it is to consistently direct such amazing films, is paying tribute once again to his immense talent."
Spielberg previously collected DGA honors for The Color Purple, Saving Private Ryan and Schindler's List, the latter two also earning him Oscars.
Just last month, the DGA announced it was removing D.W. Griffith's moniker from its top prize because of the filmmaker's racist ways.
While many movie historians and filmmakers regard Griffith as a pioneer of the silent age for his expert recreations of Civil War battles and camera techniques, his 1915 epic Birth of a Nation includes racial stereotypes of African Americans and heroic depictions of the Ku Klux Klan.
The removal of Griffith's name from the DGA's big award (it will now simply be called the Lifetime Achievement Award until somebody thinks up a better name) created a division in the guild. Several felt the move was warranted, based on Griffith's themes, but several directors called Griffith a groundbreaking filmmaker and suggested the name change was a case of political correctness run amok.
The D.W. Griffith Award was first given in 1953 for "distinguished achievement in motion picture direction." More than 28 directors, including Cecil B. DeMille, Alfred Hitchcock and Stanley Kubrick, have been honored with the award.