{"id":219551,"date":"2026-03-14T12:42:15","date_gmt":"2026-03-14T12:42:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/219551\/"},"modified":"2026-03-14T12:42:15","modified_gmt":"2026-03-14T12:42:15","slug":"sxsw-2026-on-aliens-and-ufos-spielberg-says-we-are-not-alone","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/219551\/","title":{"rendered":"SXSW 2026: On aliens and UFOs, Spielberg says, ‘We are not alone’"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

AUSTIN, Texas\u00a0\u2014\u00a0One of the most anticipated events at this year\u2019s SXSW Film & TV Festival<\/a> wasn\u2019t a movie at all, but a speaking appearance by director Steven Spielberg. The talk, a live taping of the podcast \u201cThe Big Picture\u201d lead by co-host Sean Fennessey, covered many aspects of the Hollywood legend\u2019s career, with a through line of sci-fi and space aliens in conjunction with Spielberg\u2019s upcoming alien invasion thriller \u201cDisclosure Day,\u201d due June 12.<\/p>\n

Though no real details about the new film were revealed, references to it peppered the conversation as if it were very much on Spielberg\u2019s mind \u2014 the film he was ostensibly there to promote.<\/p>\n

To an audience that included filmmakers Robert Rodriguez and Daniel Kwan, the event began with a clip reel that served as a reminder (as if anyone in the packed hotel ballroom needed one) of just how influential the 79-year-old filmmaker is. A selection of Spielberg\u2019s work plays like a trailer for the idea of movies themselves; this one included \u201cJaws,\u201d \u201cRaiders of the Lost Ark,\u201d \u201cE.T.\u201d \u201cSchindler\u2019s List,\u201d \u201cJurassic Park,\u201d \u201cThe Sugarland Express,\u201d \u201cCatch Me If You Can,\u201d \u201cMunich\u201d and many more.<\/p>\n

Fennessey noted that Spielberg wanted to make 1977\u2019s \u201cClose Encounters of the Third Kind,\u201d his first sci-fi movie about the existence of aliens from other worlds, even before making 1975\u2019s \u201cJaws.\u201d Spielberg went further, saying he had actually wanted to make \u201cClose Encounters\u201d \u2014 then just referred to as \u201cThe UFO Movie\u201d \u2014 even before 1974\u2019s \u201cSugarland Express.\u201d<\/p>\n

Asked about President Obama\u2019s recent comments<\/a> about the possible existence of intelligent life elsewhere in the universe and how his own feelings may have evolved over the years, Spielberg said, \u201cI think that for one thing, when President Obama made that comment, I thought, \u2018Oh my God, this is so great for \u201cDisclosure Day,\u201d\u2019 and then, two days later, he stepped back the comment and said what he believed in was life in the cosmos, which of course everybody should believe that because no one should ever think that we are the only intelligent civilization in the entire universe. So I\u2019ve always believed, even as a kid, that we were not alone. So that just goes without saying. The big question is: Are we alone now?\u201d<\/p>\n

He added this interest was \u201creinvigorated\u201d by a 2017 New York Times article about U.S. Navy pilots seeing unexplained aerial phenomenon, then by a 2023 Congressional subcommittee hearing on the topic.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t know any more than any of you do,\u201d Spielberg said, \u201cbut I have a very strong, sticky suspicion that we are not alone here on Earth right now. And I made a movie about that.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Two <\/p>\n

Spielberg and \u201cThe Big Picture\u201d co-host Sean Fennessey taping a live podcast at SXSW on Friday.<\/p>\n

(Tibrina Hobson \/ Getty Images)<\/p>\n

As to how he feels about that possibility, Spielberg added, \u201cI\u2019m not afraid of any aliens, there or here. I have no fears about that, whatsoever. I think our movie does take into consideration, without giving too much away, the social dislocation that could occur, theologically, if it would be announced that there\u2019s evidence \u2014 not only evidence, where it\u2019s interaction that\u2019s has been going on for decades, that we are not just now finding out about. It is going to cause a disruption in a lot of belief systems, but I don\u2019t think it\u2019s a lethal disruption at all.\u201d<\/p>\n

Among other topics that were discussed, Spielberg revealed he is developing a western that would shoot in Texas, though he was reluctant to discuss it in any further detail except to say it would contain \u201cno tropes.\u201d<\/p>\n

He also said he is not on any social media, but did install Instagram on his phone once for two weeks and felt as if he had been abducted by aliens for the amount of time he lost.<\/p>\n

To that end, he also noted, with comic frustration, how he himself has never had any sort of alien encounter.<\/p>\n

\u201dI made a movie called \u2018Close Encounters of the Third Kind.\u2019 I haven\u2019t even had a close encounter of the first or second kind,\u201d Spielberg said. \u201cWhere\u2019s the justice in that? If you\u2019re listening out there, I\u2019m talking to you.\u201d<\/p>\n

There was a brief moment of confusion when Fennessey asked Spielberg for his thoughts on AI and Spielberg wasn\u2019t clear if he was asking about his own 2001 movie or the broader topic of artificial intelligence.<\/p>\n

Once that was cleared up (Fennessey meant the latter, a serious labor issue in Hollywood<\/a>), Spielberg noted he has not used AI on any of his own films. \u201cI don\u2019t want to go into a whole rant about AI because I am for AI in many different disciplines. I am not for AI if it replaces a creative individual.\u201d<\/p>\n

Speaking to the theatrical experience, Spielberg made a brief allusion to the flare-up around comments by Timoth\u00e9e Chalamet<\/a> regarding the popularity of opera and ballet in relation to the movies.<\/p>\n

He noted that he does not decry the at-home streaming experience and that he works with Netflix, but that \u201cfor me, the real experience comes when we can influence a community to congregate in a strange dark space. All us are strangers and, at the end of a really good movie experience, we are all united with a whole bunch of feelings that we walk into the daylight with or into the nighttime with. And there\u2019s nothing like that. I mean, it happens in movies, it happens at concerts and it happens in ballet and opera.\u201d <\/p>\n

Here there was a round of applause from the audience. \u201cAnd we want that sustained and we want that to go forever.\u201d<\/p>\n

Spielberg noted how many of his favorite filmmakers, including David Lean and Billy Wilder and more recent examples such as Paul Thomas Anderson and Christopher Nolan, are always making films that feel different from what they have done before. He sees himself as part of that same school.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf we\u2019re just not making the same sequel over and over and over again and they\u2019re not the same Marvel title over and over and over again, we all get a real chance to experience something, which is freshness,\u201d Spielberg said. \u201cAnd that is why I don\u2019t judge my accomplishments based on a single film.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"AUSTIN, Texas\u00a0\u2014\u00a0One of the most anticipated events at this year\u2019s SXSW Film & TV Festival wasn\u2019t a movie…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":219552,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[2007,37086,30734,100544,100543,100545,100542,52925,48,52,51,47,50,49,4287,48002,10239,21935,100541,87647,54707],"class_list":["post-219551","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-los-angeles","tag-ai","tag-alien","tag-ballet","tag-close-encounters","tag-disclosure-day","tag-existence","tag-fennessey","tag-hollywood-legend","tag-la","tag-la-headlines","tag-la-news","tag-los-angeles","tag-los-angeles-headlines","tag-los-angeles-news","tag-movie","tag-new-film","tag-opera","tag-president-obama","tag-recent-comment","tag-spielberg","tag-sxsw"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/219551","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=219551"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/219551\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/219552"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=219551"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=219551"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=219551"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}