Entertainment · Film · 19 hrs ago
Stars honor Steven Spielberg at MoMA film gala
Tom Cruise opened a gala honoring Steven Spielberg at New York’s Museum of Modern Art on Thursday.
Around 300 actors, directors and artists attended the annual event, including Bruce Springsteen, Martin Scorsese and Drew Barrymore.
The gathering celebrated Spielberg’s more than five decades in filmmaking, including films such as Jaws, E.T. and Schindler’s List.
Spielberg has directed more than 35 feature films and won three competitive Academy Awards.
Springsteen closed the gala with a performance of “Dancing in the Dark” and joked that Jaws had spoiled late-night skinny-dipping on the Jersey Shore.
Spielberg said he still has the enthusiasm for filmmaking he had as a 12-year-old making home movies.
He praised MoMA for treating film as an art form, a role the museum began taking on in the 1930s.
The Museum of Modern Art’s annual film gala honored director Steven Spielberg.
Bruce Springsteen closed the Thursday event with a performance and a joke about Spielberg’s 1975 film Jaws.
Tom Cruise opened the gala, which brought together about 300 actors, directors and artists, according to The New York Times.
Spielberg said the recognition mattered to him because MoMA helped establish cinema as an art form.
The gala’s guests included Martin Scorsese, Robert De Niro, Cate Blanchett and Emily Blunt.
- Who
- Steven Spielberg was honored at the gala. Bruce Springsteen, Tom Cruise and other guests took part.
- What
- MoMA held its annual film gala to pay tribute to Spielberg and his career.
- When
- Thursday night; the articles were published on November 13, 2026.
- Where
- The Museum of Modern Art in Midtown Manhattan, New York.
- Why
- The gala honored Spielberg’s filmmaking career and raised funds for the museum, according to El País.
This story does not have two clearly opposing sides.
Tom Cruise opened the MoMA gala honoring Spielberg.
Spielberg spoke about MoMA’s role in recognizing cinema as an art form.
Springsteen closed the event with a performance of Dancing in the Dark and a joke about Jaws.
- Honoree
- Steven Spielberg
- Venue
- Museum of Modern Art, Midtown Manhattan
- Guests
- About 300 actors, directors and artists, according to The New York Times
- Springsteen performance
- Dancing in the Dark
- Spielberg film referenced in Springsteen’s joke
- Jaws (1975)
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What people are saying
One of the great pleasures on the Jersey Shore in 1975 was night swimming, preferably naked with someone you wanted to have sex with. Steven Spielberg ruined that.
The Museum of Modern Art was one of the first museums to recognize cinema as an art form in the mid-1930s. Not just as a concession or a kind of technological mix, but as a true art form.
I was supposed to be working, and I ended up here instead.
Posts on X
Bruce Springsteen says Steven Spielberg “f*cked up” naked late-night swims on the Jersey Shore after releasing “Jaws” in 1975: “One of the great pleasures on the Jersey Shore in 1975 was night swimming, preferably naked with someone you wanted to have sex with. Steven