Steven Spielberg, widely regarded as one of cinema's greatest directors, has revealed that Frank Capra is the filmmaker he returns to most often, praising him as an underrated genius whose films reliably move him. Spielberg said he watches a Capra picture whenever he wants "a good cry or a good laugh," highlighting how the classic Hollywood director's influence on tone, character and sincerity continues to shape his own work, decades after Capra's heyday.

Capra won the Academy Award for Best Director three times, for It Happened One Night, Mr Deeds Goes to Town and You Can't Take It With You, and remains best known for It's a Wonderful Life, which only became a beloved classic well after its initial release. Spielberg singled out It's a Wonderful Life and the lesser-known Pocketful of Miracles as his go-to comfort films, and traces Capra's fingerprints on his own work, from the flirtatious banter in Raiders of the Lost Ark to the emotional warmth of Close Encounters of the Third Kind, ET the Extra-Terrestrial and Catch Me If You Can.