“Thank you, everyone. So, the real moment when I realize I might be actually making the movie is the second I get in the van with the location manager and set out on a scout or recce and see what they found. Before getting into the van, I will have been provided with a ton of photos and videos but that’s not the same thing as being out in the real world to find the real locations. In my lap, I’ll be holding a folder with my storyboards which are sketches of how I imagined the locations would look like, but the first time we stop to get out and look, even if it’s not the last stop, will often make me kind of forget some of what I drew. Because the reality of making movies in the real world is always better than the world I tried to imagine at home.

Now we all know movies and TV shows take their first breath with a story, with the script, so thank you to my sisters and brothers of the Writers Guild of America and the actors of SAG/AFTRA-without them I’d be living in a van down by the river. And without all of you in locations, I’d be filming every one of my locations on the Universal backlot!

I value the time I get to spend with all of you over the years. And your people skills in getting home owners, for instance to let us invade their sanctuaries with our circus of cast and crew-because location managers must possess those kinds of social skills. And they have to be honest about what people’s front lawns are going to look like when the company finally packs out to move on to the next location. And then, we get to restore their homes as if we had never been there-and that’s what you all do! The location managers I have worked with stick with the production throughout principal photography, because people change their minds. A storefront location agreed upon once can suddenly no longer be available because the owner wants an adjustment in fees or just doesn’t like how many crew have already swarmed their community. And its up to the location managers to either fix the problem or find another location; sometimes in a matter of hours. This is the non-stop work that you all do. You could all work for the State Department as that’s the skillset this job requires.

And my admiration for each of you down through the 55 years I have been directing, driving to tarnation and back in your cars is limitless-because YOU are limitless. So, here’s to more years discovering those natural wonders together that make our stories live and breathe and change people’s lives as you have changed mine.”

 Thank you for the Eva Monley Award. Eva was my friend and associate on several international productions, especially my movie Empire of the Sun. And she would get such a kick out of me receiving this honor that bears her name, because the memory of her smile is lighting up this night for me. Thank you.”

Steven Spielberg’s acceptance speech for the Eva Monley Award at the 10th Annual LMGI Awards 2023

Published courtesy of COMPASS Magazine – The Official Magazine of the Location Managers Guild International. FALL 2023

About the LMGI Eva Monley Award

Eva Monley was a Kenyan Location Scout, Production Manager and Film Producer. Monley was an expert on filming in Africa and helped many of the world’s best known Directors and Producers film on location there. In 2013 the The Location Managers Guild of America (renamed Location Managers Guild International,) honoured the memory of Eva Monley, by naming the award after her. Recipients of the award are industry professionals that have demonstrated ‘above and beyond’ support of the work of Locations department professionals.