MUMBAI: Steven Spielberg will be honored at next January’s Golden Globe Awards with the Cecil B. DeMille Award for his “outstanding contribution to the entertainment field.”

The award was voted by the Board of Directors of the Hollywood Foreign Press Association.

The DeMille Award will be presented to Spielberg at “The 65th Annual Golden Globe Awards” to be held 13 January, 2008.

Spielberg has received six Golden Globes; for Best Director for Schindler’s List and Saving Private Ryan, for Best Motion Picture (Drama) for E.T., The Extra-Terrestrial, Schindler’s List, and Saving Private Ryan; and for Best Foreign Language Film For Letters From Iwo Jima. He received 12 additional Golden Globe nominations; eight as Best Director for Jaws, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, Raiders of the Lost Ark, E.T., The Extra-Terrestrial, The Color Purple, Amistad, A.I.: Artificial Intelligence and Munich, three as a producer on Best Motion Picture (Drama) nominees The Color Purple, Empire of the Sun, and Amistad, and one for his screenplay for Close Encounters of the Third Kind.

Recent Cecil B. DeMille winners include Warren Beatty (2007), Anthony Hopkins (2006), Robin Williams (2005), Michael Douglas (2004), Gene Hackman (2003), Harrison Ford (2002), Al Pacino (2001), and Barbra Streisand (2000).

Spielberg is a principal partner of DreamWorks Studios, which he co-founded with Jeffrey Katzenberg and David Geffen in October 1994 and which was sold to Paramount Pictures in early 2006. Under their leadership, DreamWorks has enjoyed critical and commercial success, and has been responsible for films which include three consecutive Best Picture Academy Award winners: American Beauty, Gladiator, and A Beautiful Mind (the latter two co-productions with Universal). In 2007, DreamWorks had four consecutive films open #1 at the box office, including Norbit, Blades of Glory, Disturbia, and Transformers, which alone has grossed over $700 million worldwide.

One of the industry’s most successful and influential filmmakers, Spielberg has directed, produced, or executive produced some of the top-grossing films of all time, including Jurassic Park and E.T., The Extra-Terrestrial. Among his myriad honors, he is a three-time Academy Award winner, earning two Oscars for Best Director and Best Picture for Schindler’s List, and a third Oscar for Best Director for Saving Private Ryan starring Tom Hanks.

Spielberg is currently in post-production on Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull which stars Harrison Ford, Cate Blanchett and Shia LaBeouf, and will be released in theaters worldwide 22 May, 2008. 

Born on 18 December, 1946, in Cincinnati, Ohio, Spielberg was raised in the suburbs of Haddonfield, New Jersey and Scottsdale, Arizona. He started making amateur films while still in his teens, later studying film at California State University, Long Beach. In 1969, his 22-minute short Amblin was shown at the Atlanta Film Festival, which led to his becoming the youngest director ever to be signed to a long-term deal with a major Hollywood studio.

Four years later, he directed the suspenseful telefilm Duel, which garnered both critical and audience attention. He made his feature film directorial debut on The Sugarland Express from a screenplay he co-wrote. His other earlier film credits as director include Always, Hook, and the Raiders of the Lost Ark sequels Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom and Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade.

In 1984, Spielberg formed his own production company, Amblin Entertainment. Under the Amblin banner, he has served as producer or executive producer on more than a dozen films, including such successes as Gremlins, Goonies, Back to the Future I, II, and III, Who Framed Roger Rabbit?, An American Tail, The Land Before Time, The Flintstones, Casper, Twister, The Mask of Zorro, Men in Black and Men in Black II. Amblin Entertainment also produces the hit series ER with Warner Bros. TV.

Spielberg’s other TV endeavors include executive producing with Tom Hanks the award-winning miniseries Band of Brothers for HBO and DreamWorks Television.Also an Emmy winner for Best Miniseries was 2002’s Taken which Spielberg executive produced for DreamWorks Television and The Sci-Fi Channel.