Steven Spielberg debuts his film memoir The Fabelmans at Toronto Film Festival

Written by Spielberg with Tony Kushner, The Faberman Family spans from the director’s own childhood to his parents, played by Michelle Williams and Paul Dano in the film, and his early formation as a filmmaker. The film begins with a timid boy outside a movie theater going to see his first film (“The Greatest Show on Earth”). His mother encourages him, “Movies are dreams, dolls.”

“That’s obviously something I’ve been thinking about for a long time,” Spielberg said on stage after a screening late Saturday. , this is my swan song, don’t believe that.”

Spielberg first spoke with Kushner about becoming “The Fabelmans” during the production of “Lincoln.” But it wasn’t until the pandemic that the director decided to tell his own story for the first time.

“As things got worse, I felt like if I was going to leave something behind, what would I really need to work out and unpack?” Spielberg said.

Spielberg, who had three sisters in the audience, later added: And it also brought my sisters, Annie and Sue and Nancy, closer to me than I ever thought possible. “

Universal Pictures will release The Fabermans in New York and Los Angeles on November 11th, followed by nationwide expansion on November 23rd. The world premiere took place in Toronto, shortly after Rian Johnson’s ‘Glass Onion: Knife Out Mystery’ premiered in The Princess of Wales. Theater — was a major event and a rarity. It was Spielberg’s first film at TIFF, and he introduced the film as his first official line-up for the film festival.

The two-and-a-half-hour film was quickly received as an epic and personal production for Spielberg, and is almost certain to land a lead role at the Academy Awards. The cast includes Seth Rogen, Judd Hirsch and Jeannie Berlin as best friends, and a short standout performance from newcomer Gabriel Lovell as Sammy Favelman, the fictional young Spielberg.

“Stephen has been so generous to let us into his life,” said Dano, who accessed old Spielberg photos and home movies and had lengthy Zoom conversations with the director. “The goal was to capture life as it was lived.” While there are moments in the film where Sammy is brought to life, “Favellmans” may surprise you with how intricately woven filmmaking and family life are. I can’t. Cinema in Spielberg’s films is both transformative and dangerous. How to express genuine feelings and hide them. Kushner, who is a frequent collaborator of Spielberg, said the film shows that “film is an unreliable friend.”

“It gets you to safety, but going through safety is unexpected and scary,” Kushner said.

Fabelmans brings together early 8mm camera experiments, small family films and increasingly ambitious short films. There are some differences, but they all reflect Spielberg’s own first foray into filmmaking.

“I made all the behind-the-scenes things in this movie so much better than the actual movie I made in Sammy’s time,” Spielberg said with a smile. “It was a great redo.”