With just a few days until the RAKUTEN TV Empire Awards, Empire Magazine is delighted to announce that today’s most iconic film director, Steven Spielberg, will receive the restigious ‘Legend Of Our Lifetime Award’, presented by Rakuten TV at the Rakuten TV Empire Awards.

The star-studded event will take place at Camden’s Roundhouse in London this Sunday, March 18 – just ten days ahead of the release of the acclaimed filmmaker’s epic new big-screen action adventure, Ready Player One. The awards show sees the world’s biggest movie magazine celebrate the best in film and TV, voted for by fans.

With a career that spans over five decades and includes countless awards, including three Academy Awards® for Best Picture (Schindler’s List) and Best Director (Schindler’s List, Saving Private Ryan), Spielberg is known across the globe as one of the greatest visual storytellers of all time.

Speaking of his award Steven Spielberg said: “Empire Magazine is the contemporary vanguard for movies and the people who love them, and this recognition is a huge honor. I’m very proud to receive this award from Rakuten TV, everyone at Empire and all their amazing readers.”

Spielberg started his cinema-defining career in the sixties, and went on to invent the summer blockbuster in the seventies with the ground-breaking Jaws. Since then, the filmmaking icon has given audiences countless unforgettable experiences at the cinema, from Close Encounters of the Third Kind and Raiders Of The Lost Ark, to E.T The Extra Terrestrial and new virtual-reality blockbuster Ready Player One, which will be released in cinemas on 29th March.

Empire’s Editor-In-Chief Terri White comments:
“There is no filmmaker, no human, who means more to Empire than Steven Spielberg. He has entertained, thrilled, educated and inspired us for almost fifty years. So, it is with a full heart that we announce he has been named the Empire Legend of Our Lifetime. From E.T. to Jaws to Saving Private Ryan and new film Ready Player One, Steven’s contribution to cinema, and to the lives of film-lovers, cannot be overstated. We are beyond thrilled that he will be joining us this Sunday at Camden’s Roundhouse, to collect his greatly-deserved honour.”

#RakutenTVEmpireAwards

2018 Nominations

For further information, please contact:
Jess Blake- jess.blake@bauermedia.co.uk

For red carpet accreditation and enquiries:
EmpireAwards@ddapr.com / 020 7932 9800
Hannah.Proudlock@ddapr.com / Yasmin.Purves@ddapr.com

NOTES TO EDITORS
Full list of Empire Awards 2018 categories:
 Best Film – Presented By Sky Cinema
 Best Director – Presented By Vue Entertainment
 Best Male Newcomer
 Best Female Newcomer
 Best Actress – Presented By Rakuten TV
 Best Actor – Presented By Rakuten TV
 Best Screenplay
 Best Sci-Fi/Fantasy – Presented By Three
 Best British Film – Presented By The Hollywood Reporter
 Best Horror
 Best Documentary
 Best Comedy – Presented By Monkey Shoulder
 Best Thriller – Presented By Absolute Radio
 Best Animated Film
 Best Soundtrack
 Best Costume Design
 Best Production Design
 Best Visual Effects – Presented By Vue Entertainment
 Best Make-Up And Hairstyling
 Best Tv Series – Presented By Three
 Best Actress In A TV Series
 Best Actor In A TV Series

About Empire:
Empire is the world’s biggest movie magazine brand. Constantly evolving, it has expanded its breadth of content to cover every cinematic form, from movies and TV to streaming and mobile. Connecting with three million fans across its multiple touchpoints, Empire continues to deliver compelling entertainment content and unique creative cover treatments, with world-first reveals.

About Bauer Media:
Bauer Media UK reaches over 25 million UK consumers through a portfolio of world-class, multi-platform media and entertainment brands including heat, Kiss, Grazia, Empire, TV Choice, Take A Break, Bella, Magic and Absolute Radio. It creates and curates entertaining media content that audiences love whenever, wherever and however they want through a multi-channel strategy and a focus on product excellence and audience insight. The result is an exciting array of influential brands, content and talent which provide compelling and engaging advertising opportunities with valuable audiences for UK commercial partners. Bauer Media UK is part of the Bauer Media Group, one of the world’s largest privately owned media businesses with media assets all over the globe.

About Ready Player One

From filmmaker Steven Spielberg comes the action adventure “Ready Player One,” based on Ernest Cline’s bestseller of the same name, which has become a worldwide phenomenon. 

In the year 2045, the real world is a harsh place.  The only time Wade Watts (Tye Sheridan) truly feels alive is when he escapes to the OASIS, an immersive virtual universe where most of humanity spends their days.  In the OASIS, you can go anywhere, do anything, be anyone—the only limits are your own imagination.  The OASIS was created by the brilliant and eccentric James Halliday (Mark Rylance), who left his immense fortune and total control of the Oasis to the winner of a three-part contest he designed to find a worthy heir.  When Wade conquers the first challenge of the reality-bending treasure hunt, he and his friends—aka the High Five—are hurled into a fantastical universe of discovery and danger to save the OASIS.

Three-time Oscar winner Spielberg (“Schindler’s List” [director & picture], and “Saving Private Ryan” [director]) directed the film from a screenplay by Zak Penn and Ernest Cline, based on the novel by Cline, which has spent more than 100 weeks on the The New York Times Best Sellers list and recently shot to #1.  “Ready Player One” was produced by Donald De Line, Kristie Macosko Krieger, Spielberg, and Dan Farah.  Adam Somner, Daniel Lupi, Chris deFaria and Bruce Berman served as executive producers. 

“Ready Player One” stars Tye Sheridan (“X-Men: Apocalypse,” “Mud”), Olivia Cooke (“Me and Earl and the Dying Girl,” “Bates Motel”), Ben Mendelsohn (“Rogue One – A Star Wars Story,” “Bloodline”), Lena Waithe (“Master of None”), T.J. Miller (“Deadpool”), Philip Zhao, Win Morisaki, Hannah John-Kamen (“Star Wars: The Force Awakens”), with Simon Pegg (the “Star Trek” and “Mission: Impossible” movies) and Oscar winner Mark Rylance (“Bridge of Spies,” “Dunkirk”).  

Behind the scenes, Spielberg collaborated with Oscar-winning director of photography Janusz Kaminski (“Schindler’s List,” “Saving Private Ryan”), Oscar-winning production designer Adam Stockhausen (“The Grand Budapest Hotel”), Oscar-winning editor Michael Kahn (“Saving Private Ryan,” “Raiders of the Lost Ark”) and editor Sarah Broshar (“The Post”), and Oscar-nominated costume designer Kasia Walicka Maimone (“Moonrise Kingdom”).  The score is by Oscar-nominated composer Alan Silvestri (the “Back to the Future” films, “Forrest Gump”).

Warner Bros. Pictures and Amblin Entertainment present, in association with Village Roadshow Pictures, an Amblin Production, a De Line Pictures Production, a Steven Spielberg Film, “Ready Player One.”

Opening on March 29, 2018 in 2D and 3D in select theatres and IMAX, the film will be distributed by Warner Bros. Pictures, a Warner Bros. Entertainment Company, and in select territories by Village Roadshow Pictures.