Feb. 14, 2023

Berlin Film Festival applaud Spielberg

Spielberg was in Berlin to receive the Honorary Golden Bear for lifetime achievement and was presented a gala screening of The Fabelmans. The festival's Homage section has also been devoted to his films. “To be honoured in Berlin, which is one of the most august festivals in history, is a tremendous high point in my life,” he said.

Steven Spielberg made touching reference to the Holocaust and the country's continuing attempt to face its own past in the name of healing. Introduced by U2 singer/humanitarian Bono, Spielberg's speech drew an ovation of around 12 minutes.

He said that the award had put him into a reflective mood. “The honour about a lifetime achievement award is just simply that it forces you to do something I don't often do: it forces me to reflect. Reflecting means I'm not moving forward. For me, when I reflect, it means I'm spending too much time in neutral, just remembering.”

Spielberg was warmly received by the international media at a packed Berlinale press conference. He also seemed to be enjoying himself, and allowed for more questions when the allotted time for the conference had run out.

“This honour has particular meaning for me because I'm a Jewish director,” said Spielberg, referencing his coming-of-age autobiographical film The Fabelmans for which he's Oscar nominated. “I'd like to believe that this is a small moment in a much larger, ongoing effort of healing the broken places of history - what Jews call Tikkun Olam, the repairing and restoring of the world.

“I established The Shoah Foundation, because I'm convinced that what historian Yosef Hayim Yerushalmi wrote is true: The opposite of justice is not injustice. The opposite of justice is forgetting. Reconciliation is possible only when we remember what's happened. Germany has long been an essential partner in the Shoah Foundation's work. Private citizens and the German government and the Berlin Film Festival have joined us in gathering and interviewing witnesses, in introducing documentaries, in spreading educational materials, in helping us make our archives widely available in Germany.

“The German people have shown themselves willing to read their country's history, to confront its lessons regarding antisemitism, bigotry, and xenophobia, harbingers of holocaust,” Spielberg said. “Other countries, including my own, can learn a lot from the courageous determination of the German people to act to prevent fascists from seizing power. A nation can be called just only if it refuses the convenient amnesia that tempts us all. After the 20th Century, maybe no nation should flatter or delude itself that it deserves to be called Just. But we shouldn't deny the possibility of Justice. We shouldn't stop pursuing it. That pursuit is our best hope for finding meaning in life. And that it begins with remembering.”

Back to Listing

---