<Tr> <Th> Budget </Th> <Td> $22 million </Td> </Tr> <Tr> <Th> Box office </Th> <Td> $321.2 million </Td> </Tr> <P> Schindler's List is a 1993 American epic historical period drama film directed and co-produced by Steven Spielberg and scripted by Steven Zaillian . It is based on the novel Schindler's Ark by Australian novelist Thomas Keneally . The film relates a period in the life of Oskar Schindler, an ethnic German businessman, during which he saved the lives of more than a thousand mostly Polish - Jewish refugees from the Holocaust by employing them in his factories during World War II . It stars Liam Neeson as Schindler, Ralph Fiennes as SS officer Amon Göth, and Ben Kingsley as Schindler's Jewish accountant Itzhak Stern . </P> <P> Ideas for a film about the Schindlerjuden (Schindler Jews) were proposed as early as 1963 . Poldek Pfefferberg, one of the Schindlerjuden, made it his life's mission to tell the story of Schindler . Spielberg became interested in the story when executive Sidney Sheinberg sent him a book review of Schindler's Ark . Universal Pictures bought the rights to the novel, but Spielberg, unsure if he was ready to make a film about the Holocaust, tried to pass the project to several other directors before finally deciding to direct the film himself . </P>

Who played schindler in the movie schindler's list