Released in 2022, “The Fabelmans” tells the story of a boy who grapples with domestic drama while pursuing his dreams of filmmaking. An ode to the power of cinema, the movie is also a trip down memory lane for its creator, Steven Spielberg. Perhaps you’ve heard of him? Of course you have, as anyone who’s even slightly fond of the moviegoing experience recognizes the name of Hollywood’s most accomplished director.

Indeed, few if any icons are more synonymous with the joys of modern cinema than one Steven Spielberg. A veritable prodigy who was making home movies by the age of 12, he began helming episodes of shows like “Night Gallery” just over a decade later. On the heels of the 1971 cult TV movie “Duel” and the 1974 crime drama “Sugarland Express” came the 1975 blockbuster “Jaws.” The rest, as they say, is history. (These 20 little-known facts about “Jaws” may surprise you.)

To review Spielberg’s career as both a director and producer is to touch down on hits and misses across virtually every genre. An absolute master of crowd-pleasers, he’s also churned out sobering period dramas such as 1985’s “The Color Purple” and 1993’s “Schindler’s List,” to name just a few. (See where that latter film falls in our list of the best war movies of all time.)

Click here to see the best Steven Spielberg movies

To determine the best Steven Spielberg movies (as well as those that don’t quite measure up), 24/7 Tempo developed an index of feature-length films directed by Spielberg using average ratings on IMDb, an online movie database owned by Amazon, and a combination of audience scores and Tomatometer scores on Rotten Tomatoes, an online movie and TV review aggregator, as of January 2023, weighting all ratings equally. Directorial and cast credits are from IMDb.