Celebrated filmmaker honored with the prestigious award
May 15 for his extraordinary artistic
contributions to global understanding.
PHILADELPHIA, May 6, 2024
/PRNewswire-PRWeb/ -- Eisenhower Fellowships will award its highest
honor, the Dwight D. Eisenhower Medal for Leadership and Service,
to legendary film director Steven
Spielberg for his extraordinary artistic achievements in
presenting America's culture and history to the world and
documenting for future generations the epic story of the 20th
Century to advance global understanding.
"Few people embody President Eisenhower's
ideals in their life's work more than Steven Spielberg," Dr. Gates said. "He has used
the magic of movies to present the face of an open-hearted America
to the world, helping build bridges of trust and understanding
across borders and cultures."
The Chairman of Eisenhower Fellowships (EF), former U.S.
Secretary of Defense Dr. Robert M.
Gates, will present the prestigious medal to Spielberg at
the organization's 2024 Annual Awards Dinner on Wednesday, May 15 at the National Constitution
Center in Philadelphia.
"Few people embody President Eisenhower's ideals in their life's
work more than Steven Spielberg,"
Dr. Gates said. "He has used the magic of movies to present the
face of an open-hearted America to the world, helping build bridges
of trust and understanding across borders and cultures."
As a storied writer, director and producer, Spielberg has
brought to the screen an unrivalled number of box-office
blockbusters, poignant dramas, swashbuckling adventures and epic
depictions of World War II. Seven of his 29 films are cited as
"culturally, historically or aesthetically significant" by the
National Film Registry of the Library of Congress.
Many of Spielberg's films and creative productions resonate
deeply with the values and ethos of the 70-year-old nonprofit
institution, Gates said, because of their relevance to the
organization's namesake. These include Saving Private Ryan and Band
of Brothers, about the D-Day invasion of Normandy and the Allied
push towards Nazi Germany, which
Eisenhower commanded; Schindler's List, about the Nazi death camps
that Eisenhower's forces liberated; Band of Brothers and Masters of
the Air, powerful television dramas about American paratroopers and
airmen fighting Germany under
Eisenhower's command; and Bridge of Spies, which tells the
little-known tale of the aftermath of the Soviet shootdown of a
U.S. spy plane in 1960 while Eisenhower was president.
Mr. Spielberg, the son of a World War II U.S. Army Air Force
veteran and the recipient of numerous awards over his six-decade
career, including three Academy Awards, has devoted much of his
time and resources to many philanthropic causes. After directing
Schindler's List, he used all his profits from the film to found
the Righteous Persons Foundation, known today as the USC Shoah Foundation—The Institute for Visual
History and Education, a nonprofit organization dedicated to
preserving Jewish memory that has recorded more than 55,000 stories
of survivors and witnesses of the Holocaust and other
genocides.
In 2021 Mr. Spielberg and his wife, Kate
Capshaw, launched The Hearthland Foundation, a philanthropic
fund to help build a more just, equitable and connected America.
Hearthland is founded on the belief that creating a better shared
future for our country calls for relationships that cross divides
and the moral imagination of what is possible. The foundation
focuses on building a shared democracy, telling and honest and
generative narrative about the United
States and fostering a culture of accompaniment.
The Eisenhower Medal, established in 1988 by EF's Board of
Trustees, is awarded annually to a distinguished states person,
business leader or other public figure who has achieved, through
direct person-to-person international dialogue, advances toward
President Eisenhower's goal of peace, prosperity and justice.
Previous Medal recipients include late U.S. Secretary of State
Madeleine Albright; General
Colin L. Powell; U.S. Senators
George Mitchell, Sam Nunn and John
McCain; former Secretaries of State James A. Baker III and
Henry Kissinger; businesswoman and
philanthropist Melinda French Gates;
the global medical organization Doctors Without Borders; former
New Jersey Gov. Christine Todd Whitman; Presidents George H.W. Bush and Gerald Ford; Washington Post Publisher
Katherine Graham; Susan and David Eisenhower; and former Chilean
President Michelle Bachelet, among
others.
Also being honored at the Awards Dinner May 15 are two exceptional Eisenhower Fellows
from Vietnam, Tin Huu Mai and
Thao Nguyen Griffiths. Dr. Gates
will present them with the 2024 Distinguished Fellow Award for
their professional accomplishments and dedicated engagement with
the organization as leaders of its dynamic chapter of Eisenhower
Fellows in their country.
Founded as a birthday present to President Eisenhower during his
first year in the White House, Eisenhower Fellowships brings
together diverse, innovative leaders from all fields from around
the globe to tackle some of the world's most pressing challenges.
Since its creation in 1953, more than 2.500 mid-career leaders from
115 countries have benefitted from the unique, customized
experience of an Eisenhower Fellowship.
Media contact
For more information and to cover the event, contact:
Lee West, Director, Global Network
Programs
lwest@efworld.org
215-546-1738
Media Contact
Lee West, Eisenhower Fellowships,
215-546-1738, lwest@efworld.org, www.efworld.org
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SOURCE Eisenhower Fellowships