The Fabelmans
The Fabelmans is a 2022 American coming-of-age drama film directed and co-produced by Steven Spielberg, who co-wrote the screenplay with Tony Kushner. Loosely based on Spielberg's early life and beginnings as a filmmaker, the semi-autobiographical film follows Sammy Fabelman, a young aspiring filmmaker who explores how the power of films can help him see the truth about his dysfunctional family and those around him. It stars Gabriel LaBelle as Sammy, alongside Michelle Williams, Paul Dano, Seth Rogen, and Judd Hirsch in supporting roles. David Lynch makes a cameo as filmmaker John Ford during the film's final scene, in his final acting role before his death in 2025.
Spielberg had conceived the project as early as 1999, with his sister Anne writing a screenplay titled I'll Be Home. Spielberg postponed the project for 20 years due to concerns about how it might affect his parents. He revisited it in 2019 with screenwriter and frequent collaborator Kushner while they were making West Side Story, and the screenplay was completed in late 2020. Development of the film officially began soon after, with casting taking place between March and May 2021. Principal photography began that July in Los Angeles and wrapped in September. The film is dedicated to the memories of Spielberg's parents, Leah Adler and Arnold Spielberg, who died in 2017 and 2020, respectively.
The Fabelmans premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival on September 10, 2022, where it won the People's Choice Award. Distributed by Universal Pictures, the film opened as a limited theatrical release in the United States on November 11, 2022, and then expanded to a wide release on November 23, grossing $45.6 million on a $40 million budget. It received widespread critical acclaim and was named one of the top ten films of 2022 by the National Board of Review and the American Film Institute, and was considered a return to form for Spielberg. The Fabelmans earned numerous awards and nominations including seven nominations at the 95th Academy Awards, including Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actress, and Best Supporting Actor. It also earned 11 nominations at the 28th Critics' Choice Awards, winning Best Young Performer, and five nominations at the 80th Golden Globe Awards, winning Best Motion Picture – Drama and Best Director. It has since been ranked as among the best films of the 2020s and the 21st century.
Plot
In 1952, Haddon Township, New Jersey, Jewish couple Mitzi and Burt Fabelman take their young son Sammy to see his first film: The Greatest Show on Earth. Dazzled by a train scene, Sammy asks for a model set for Hanukkah, which he crashes late one night. Mitzi allows him to shoot another crash scene using Burt's 8 mm camera. Sammy begins filming regularly, sometimes involving his sisters. Burt is offered a new job in Phoenix, Arizona, where he and the family move in 1957. At Mitzi's insistence, Burt's best friend and business partner, Bennie Loewy, goes, too.Years later, teenage Sammy makes films with his friends in the Boy Scouts, begins using post-production effects, and earns a badge in photography. Later, the Fabelmans, including Bennie, take a camping trip with Sammy taking footage of their vacation. Mitzi's mother later dies, leaving her distraught. Burt gives Sammy editing equipment and asks him to make a vacation film to cheer Mitzi up. Sammy objects, but Burt insists, dismissing filmmaking as a mere hobby. The next morning, the Fabelmans receive a visit from Mitzi's uncle Boris, a former lion tamer and film worker. That night, he speaks with Sammy about compromising his family with art, saying that both aspects will always be at odds with one another. Boris leaves, and Sammy begins editing the vacation footage, during which he finds evidence of Mitzi and Bennie having an affair. Sammy and Mitzi get into an argument after weeks of him treating her and Bennie harshly. In a fit of rage, she slaps him across the back after he shouts that he wishes she were not his mother. Distraught, Sammy shows her the compiled footage and promises to keep their secret.
The following week, Burt receives another promotion, requiring another move to Saratoga, California. Bennie stays in Phoenix, but not before giving Sammy a new camera. Sammy refuses it until Bennie lets him pay $35 for it, but slips it back in Sammy's pocket when they hug goodbye. Despite receiving the camera, Sammy decides never to use it. After arriving in his new neighborhood and school, Sammy becomes targeted by students Logan and Chad, who subject him to antisemitic abuse. He begins dating the devoutly Christian Monica. While having dinner with the Fabelmans, she suggests that Sammy film their Ditch Day at the beach, something he accepts after Monica mentions that her father owns a 16 mm Arriflex camera that he would let him use.
Mitzi and Burt announce their divorce, citing her depression and his discovery of the affair. At prom, Sammy declares his love for Monica and asks her to come with him to Hollywood after high school. Unwilling to throw away her own life's plans to attend Texas A&M University, she breaks up with him. The Ditch Day 1964 film is played in front of Sammy's peers to a rapturous response. It glorifies Logan and humiliates Chad. Sammy is distraught that Monica just broke up with him, and he disappears to a school corridor. Logan finds and confronts Sammy, confused and emotional over his positive portrayal. Chad finds them and tries to attack Sammy, but Logan defends him. Logan threatens Sammy to never tell anyone that he got emotional and offers him a puff on his marijuana cigarette. Sammy agrees to keep this secret but jokes that he might make a movie about it.
The following year, Sammy is living with his father in Hollywood. He wants to drop out of college but cannot find work in filmmaking. Burt grudgingly accepts his son's passion and tells Sammy to keep on his path if it makes him happy. Sammy receives an offer to work on Hogan's Heroes. Knowing that he is more interested in filmmaking, show co-creator Bernard Fein invites Sammy to meet director John Ford, one of his greatest influences. During their brief meeting, Ford offers Sammy some pointers on framing, insisting that he never place the horizon in the center of the frame. Newly invigorated, Sammy walks through the studio backlot, the shot adjusting itself to match Ford's advice.
Cast
Production
Development
In 1999, Steven Spielberg said he had been thinking of directing a film about his childhood for some time. Spielberg's sister, Anne, originally wrote the project as I'll Be Home. He explained, "My big fear is that my mom and dad won't like it and will think it's an insult and won't share my loving yet critical point of view about what it was like to grow up with them." In 2002, Spielberg said he was nervous about making I'll Be Home: "It's so close to my life and so close to my family — I prefer to make films that are more analogous. But a literal story about my family will take a lot of courage. I still think I make personal movies even if they do look like big commercial popcorn films." In November 2022, Spielberg revealed that his parents had 'nagged' him to make a film about their lives before their deaths. His mother died in 2017, and his father in August 2020.Writing
In 2004, while working on Munich, Spielberg told screenwriter Tony Kushner his life story, with Kushner telling him in response: "Someday you're going to have to make a film about this." Spielberg and Kushner developed an 80–90 page plot outline in 2019 while filming West Side Story. Screenplay writing began on October 2, 2020, during the COVID-19 lockdowns, and lasted two months, finishing in December. Kushner reflected on the experience, saying, "We wrote three days a week, four hours a day, and we finished the script in two months: by leagues the fastest I've finished anything. It was a blast. I loved it." Spielberg, at that time, felt that the climate caused by the pandemic convinced him that the time was now right to make the film, saying:He shared script drafts with his sisters, Sue and Nancy, to incorporate their memories and ensure accuracy. Kushner, who coined the name 'Fabelman,' explained "Spielberg means play-mountain; 'spieler' is an actor in Yiddish, and a 'spiel' can be speech or can be a play... I wanted to have some of that meaning, and I've always liked the German word 'fabel,' which means fable. And because the movie is autobiographical for Steven but it isn't an autobiography, it's not a documentary, so there's a fictional element as well. So I thought that 'Fabelman' was a nod to that."
Pre-production
In March 2021, Spielberg was announced as director and co-screenwriter, his first writing role since A.I. Artificial Intelligence. Kristie Macosko Krieger joined Spielberg and Kushner as producers. In March 2022, cinematographer Janusz Kamiński described the film as chronicling Spielberg's life from age seven to eighteen, focusing on his family, relationships, and passion for filmmaking. He called it a 'beautiful, personal movie' that reveals much about Spielberg as a filmmaker. In September 2022, Spielberg expressed how personal the film was to him, saying that "This film is, for me, a way of bringing my mom and dad back. And it also brought my sisters, Annie, Susie, and Nancy, closer to me than I ever thought possible. And that was worth making the film."Casting
Spielberg emphasized authenticity in casting, seeking actors who evoked a profound personal connection and reminded him of his parents. In March 2021, Michelle Williams was in negotiations to star as Mitzi Fabelman, the role inspired by Spielberg's mother, but with "an original voice". Spielberg envisioned Williams in the role after seeing her in Blue Valentine and Fosse/Verdon. That same month, it was reported that Seth Rogen joined the cast to play Bennie Loewy, the role inspired by Bernie Adler, "the favorite uncle of young Spielberg", while Williams was confirmed to have been cast. On April 8, 2021, Paul Dano joined the cast as Burt Fabelman, the role inspired by Spielberg's father Arnold. Dano found the role intimidating, noting that portraying one of Spielberg's most influential figures carried high stakes.After a three-month search with over 2,000 contenders, Gabriel LaBelle entered final negotiations in May 2021 for the lead role of Sammy Fabelman. His casting was confirmed in June alongside Julia Butters as Reggie Fabelman, based on Spielberg's sister Anne. Later that June, Sam Rechner was cast as well. In July, Chloe East, Oakes Fegley, Isabelle Kusman, Jeannie Berlin, Judd Hirsch, Robin Bartlett and Jonathan Hadary were added to the cast. Hadary was cast as the spirit of Sammy's grandfather in a cut scene where Sammy claims to have seen him after his death, sparking a debate between his grandmothers. Kushner explained why it was cut, deeming it "unnecessary" and to keep the runtime under two and a half hours, while adding "This is a kind of epic story, it travels across 12, 15 years of time — and in order for it to have momentum, we couldn't afford to have it linger anywhere." In August, Gabriel Bateman, Nicolas Cantu, Gustavo Escobar, Lane Factor, Cooper Dodson and Stephen Matthew Smith were cast. They were later followed by newcomers Keeley Karsten, Birdie Borria, Alina Brace, Sophia Kopera, and Mateo Zoryan Francis-DeFord. In February 2022, it was announced David Lynch would also star in a then-undisclosed role, later revealed to be that of film director John Ford. At a November 7, 2022, Academy Award-qualifying screening, Spielberg revealed it took three weeks to convince Lynch, crediting Tony Kushner's husband, Mark Harris, for the idea and Laura Dern for persistently calling Lynch to persuade him. In response, Lynch said he would take it as long as there were bags of Cheetos on set as refreshments. He also requested that he be given his costume as Ford to wear every day for two weeks before filming his scene.
In September 2022, during the film's world premiere, LaBelle admitted that he initially lost the role of Sammy but secured it after a callback three months later. Upon reading the script and realizing he would portray a fictionalized Spielberg for most of the film, he recalled: "When I was auditioning, the character's name was Teenage Sammy – I thought as opposed to Adult Sammy... I get the script and you're reading it for 30 pages and he's 6 and 8 years old. Page 35 or so Teenage Sammy comes along. OK, good! Now this is my part. It's going to be a three-act movie, it's going to be a Moonlight or something. I kept waiting for my exit but it never came." Spielberg called Sammy the hardest role to cast, explaining "As a kid growing up, I always had a lot of reasons why I was always in the corner, why I was always not the center of conversation... I needed someone who wasn't going to bring too much self-awareness to Sammy." Casting director Cindy Tolan praised LaBelle's poignancy, noting his ability to balance pathos and humor. Spielberg added "I wasn't looking for what I see in the mirror, I was looking for a young actor who could carry a lot of story by being curious and honest and engaging and unpredictable."