The best Steven Spielberg films, chosen by directors, critics and super-fans: ‘pure popcorn perfection’

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From franchise hits to historical epics, joyous musicals to autobiographical family sagas: Steven Spielberg has done it all. As his latest sci-fi film Disclosure Day is released, film-makers, authors and Guardian critics reveal which of his movies means the most to them Steven Spielberg is often described as the inventor of the “event movie” – or as the creator of our new age of IP supremacy, in which the genre property is more important than any above-the-title film star. But that isn’t quite it. He came of age in the American new wave era but in spirit belonged neither to that nor fully to Hollywood’s golden age studio system that preceded it. In fact, he synthesised both into a directing style that was audacious and fluent. He availed himself of the subversiveness of the new wave, and yet was classically oriented, drawing upon his love of – and alienation from – the all-American suburb, making him the Edward Hopper or the Andrew Wyeth of the movies. Tellingly, it was François Truffa...
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After 10 years, I'm stepping down as the Observer's film critic. Here are my top films from the decade | Mark Kermode

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As I leave the post, I look back on how cinema has changed since 2013 and, below, pick a favourite movie from each year of my tenure – as well as a turkey

This week, I filed my final column as chief film critic for the Observer. I’m stepping down after exactly 10 years in the role, making way for the brilliant Wendy Ide to take over the reins and put her own inimitable stamp on the paper. A longstanding colleague and friend, Wendy is an exceptional critic and I look forward to reading her insightful and elegant reviews in these pages for years to come. In the meantime, looking back at my own experiences over the past decade, I’m struck by how much the moviegoing landscape has changed.

When I took over from the great Philip French in September 2013, Kathryn Bigelow was still the only woman to have won the Oscar for best director, having made history when she triumphed with her tense war drama The Hurt Locker in 2010. The Academy Awards have, of course, always been inherently ridiculous (remember: Citizen Kane didn’t win best picture, but Driving Miss Daisy did). For better or worse, however, this very American shindig tells us something about the way the mainstream film industry views itself. And since the first Oscars ceremony back in 1929, the Academy has overwhelmingly celebrated and prioritised white male film-makers. Yet in the past 10 years, things have at least begun to shift in encouraging ways.

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