Steven Spielberg effects provided by friend George Lucas's Industrial Light & Magic company, the film would eventually become the highest-grossing film of all time (at the worldwide box office) with $914.7 million. This would be the third time that one of Spielberg's films became the highest-grossing film ever. Spielberg's next film, "Schindler's List", was based on the true story of Oskar Schindler, a man who risked his life to save 1,100 Jews from the Holocaust. "Schindler's List" earned Spielberg his first Academy Award for Best Director (it also won Best Picture). With the film a huge success at the box office, Spielberg
Steven Spielberg which became "Close Encounters of the Third Kind" (1977). One of the rare films both written and directed by Spielberg, "Close Encounters" was a critical and box office hit, giving Spielberg his first Best Director nomination from the Academy as well as earning six other Academy Awards nominations. It won Oscars in two categories (Cinematography, Vilmos Zsigmond, and a Special Achievement Award for Sound Effects Editing, Frank E. Warner). This second blockbuster helped to secure Spielberg's rise. His next film, "1941", a big-budgeted World War II farce, was not nearly as successful and though it grossed over $92.4 million worldwide