Even without the John Williams factor, the premiere event for the 38th annual AFI Fest would have been notable in one particular regard, Steven Spielberg said. “First of all, I thank the AFI board and everyone for doing something they’ve never done before, which is to open the AFI Festival with a documentary,” Spielberg said in introducing the 2025 events’s opening-night attraction at the TCL Chinese Theatre. “That is a wonderful thing, to really be able to place the documentary form exactly where it belongs, right up alongside the narrative form.
” But “even without the John Williams factor” is not something that Spielberg has wanted to experience very often in his filmmaking career. From his debut feature, “The Sugarland Express,” through his most recent film, 2022’s “The Fabelmans,” Spielberg has brought Williams in to score 29 of his features. And now they more or less share a 30th together: “ Music by John Williams ,” a Disney+ documentary for which Spielberg served as one of the producers as well as (apart from Williams) the primary interviewee.
“I love John,” Spielberg told the crowd, saying he is “much more” than a family friend — really, “a family member. He’s the greatest creative partner I have ever had. In the 52 years John and I have been working together with him scoring my films.
.. this is the greatest partner I have ever had in the creative arts.
” Ron Howard is also a producer on the film and helped Spielberg introd.
