Which 1977 Spielberg film involves contact with aliens and was his first to be nominated for Best Director?

The 1977 Spielberg film about contact with aliens that became his first Best Director nominee was Close Encounters of the Third Kind.

The film follows Roy Neary, an Indiana electrical lineman whose close encounter with unidentified flying objects transforms his life. Rather than presenting the visitors as straightforward invaders, Spielberg depicts the encounter as mysterious, awe-inspiring, and ultimately communicative. The film’s famous five-note musical signal becomes a bridge between humans and the visitors.

Close Encounters was released in 1977, the same landmark year as Star Wars. It was written and directed by Spielberg and stars Richard Dreyfuss, Melinda Dillon, and François Truffaut. Its visual effects were supervised by Douglas Trumbull, whose work helped make the alien presence feel both immense and otherworldly.

The movie earned eight Academy Award nominations, including Best Director for Spielberg. It won the Oscar for Best Cinematography and received a Special Achievement Award for sound effects editing. E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial is another Spielberg science-fiction film involving aliens, but it came later, in 1982; Contact was released in 1997 and was directed by Robert Zemeckis.