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The director, 85, described Spielberg's film as "an infinitely more creative and fundamental piece of cinema".
Gandhi won eight gongs at the 1983 Academy Awards, including best director for Attenborough, to ET's four.
"Without the initial premise of Mahatma Gandhi, the film would be nothing," Lord Attenborough told BBC Radio Five Live. "Therefore it's a narrative film but it's a piece of narration rather than a piece of cinema, as such.
"ET depended absolutely on the concept of cinema and I think that Steven Spielberg, who I'm very fond of, is a genius."
He added: "I think ET is a quite extraordinary piece of cinema."
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