The Best Steven Spielberg Movies

List of the top films ever made by Steven Spielberg, arguably the most famous and celebrated of all American filmmakers. Spielberg won his first Oscar for directing in 1993 for his Holocaust drama "Schindler's List," and took the prize again 5 years later for the WWII drama "Saving Private Ryan" (best remembered for its immersive opening D-Day sequence.) But he had already been heralded in the '70s and '80s as one of Hollywood's most important, and successful, directors.

Spielberg first came to international recognition in 1975 with the release of his big-budget shark thriller "Jaws," a troubled production that nonetheless became a smash hit and eventually inspired the trend of blockbuster "summer movies" which continues to this day. In the ensuing years, he continued having popular success with a duo of alien-themed dramas - "Close Encounters of the Third Kind" and the family favorite "E.T.," and also branched out into comedy (the critically-trashed "1941") and period drama ("Empire of the Sun" and "The Color Purple"). He also collaborated in the 1980s with writer/producer George Lucas on the massively popular Indiana Jones adventure film series, an homage to the movie serials of the 1930s. Spielberg returned to sci-fi again in 1993 with "Jurassic Park," released in the same year as the critically-acclaimed "Schindler's List." He has since added "Minority Report" and "War of the Worlds" to the genre, both starring Tom Cruise. In 2011, Spielberg again released two popular films in the same year - the film adaptation of the hit stage production "War Horse" and the motion-capture animated "The Adventures of Tintin," a collaboration with Peter Jackson.