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.
CHANEL has been a proud sponsor of The Museum of Modern Art’s annual Film Benefit since 2011 and has served as lead sponsor of film at MoMA since 2021. As a longtime patron of art and cinema, CHANEL is committed to supporting film as one of art’s most potent mediums by creating opportunities to elevate and amplify the voices of film’s most talented and audacious storytellers and through the preservation of cinema’s legacy worldwide. CHANEL is delighted to partner with MoMA to share the Museum’s vast film collection and preserve this critical art form for future generations by restoring some of the industry’s most treasured works.
Founded in 1935, MoMA’s Department of Film cares for more than 30,000 films and 1.5 million film stills, and has one of the strongest international film collections, ranging from classics to the most innovative and experimental works of today. The Film Benefit enables the continued maintenance and growth of this important collection, as well as virtual programming and an ambitious schedule of film series, premieres, festivals, and retrospectives. Previous MoMA Film Benefit honorees include Sofia Coppola, Samuel L. Jackson, Guillermo del Toro, Penlope Cruz, George Clooney, Laura Dern, Martin Scorsese, Julianne Moore, Tom Hanks, Cate Blanchett, Alfonso Cuarn, Tilda Swinton, Quentin Tarantino, Pedro Almodvar, Kathryn Bigelow, Tim Burton, and Baz Luhrmann.
