And the 2015 DGA Award goes to...!

(Photo: Coming Soon)

The 67th Directors Guild of America Award were held last night and while the competition between Boyhood and Birdman heated up yet again as Birdman netted another guild win. With the PGA, the SAG ensemble award and now the DGA Award for Alejandro G. Inarritu, one has to wonder if Boyhood is saving the best for last, namely the Oscars? 

(Photos: Deadline)

Besides the emergence of an lively Oscar race, another encouraging trend to come out of the DGA Awards was that the rest of the night's winners were all female directors. Laura Poitras won for Edward Snowden documentary Citizenfour and in the television categories, director Lesli Linka Glatter won best dramatic series director for Homeland, while Jill Soloway won the comedy series director for Transparent and Lisa Cholodenko for HBO’s miniseries Olive Kitteridge. After the continued debate this past year on why no female director were nominated in the feature film category, this emphatic seal of approval of female power behind the camera was extremely heartening to see.

Feature Film

ALEJANDRO G. IÑÁRRITU
Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance)
(Fox Searchlight Pictures)
Mr. Iñárritu’s Directorial Team:
Unit Production Managers: James W. Skotchdopole, Robert Graf
First Assistant Director: Peter Kohn
Second Assistant Director: Amy Lauritsen
Second Second Assistant Director: Catherine Feeny
Location Manager: Joaquin Prange

And the Directors Guild of America Award goes to...

Everyone is calling this year's race for the Oscars as one of the closest ever.  The Golden Globes went to 12 Years a Slave and American Hustle for drama and comedy respectively, the SAG ensemble was claimed by the cast of American Hustle and for the first time ever, the Producers Guild of America had a historic tie as 12 Years a Slave and Gravity both were anointed as the best films of the year.

(Photo: Reuters)

And Gravity, building on the momentum of its best picture win at the PGAs, also added yet another honor to its mantle earlier this week as director Alfonso Cuaron was named best feature film by last winner's Ben Affleck (Argo).  And in the documentary feature category, director Jehane Noujaim won for The Square. Momentum is swinging all over the place.  With the Writers Guild of America and the BAFTAs remaining as the major awards, which film will emerge as the frontrunner for the Oscars?  Right now, it's anyone's game.

Below are the film award winners for the DGAs:

Feature Film:
Alfonso Cuaron, “Gravity”

Documentary:
Jehane Noujaim, “The Square”

66th Directors Guild of America nominees announced!

With all the guilds announcing their nominations in the weeks leading up to the Oscar nominations, things are definitely getting interesting and hopefully a clearer picture is starting to emerging this awards season.  The Directors Guild of America announced their feature film nominees for 2014 and their prestigious list features three first time honorees, one with his second nomination and one living legend with his eleventh (yes, eleventh!).  Alfonso Cuarón, Paul Greengrass, Steve McQueen, David O. Russell and Martin Scorsese are all nominated for the 66th annual awards which will be given out on January 25th, 2014.  The ceremony will be hosted by actress Jane Lynch. 

Here are the nominees and their details:

ALFONSO CUARÓN - Gravity (Warner Bros. Pictures)

Mr. Cuarón’s Directorial Team:

• Unit Production Manager: David Siegel (Arizona Unit)
• First Assistant Directors: Josh Robertson, Stephen Hagen (Arizona Unit)
• Second Assistant Director: Ben Howard

This is Mr. Cuarón’s first DGA Feature Film Award nomination.


PAUL GREENGRASS - Captain Phillips (Columbia Pictures)
Mr. Greengrass’s Directorial Team:

• Unit Production Managers: Todd Lewis, Gregory Goodman
• First Assistant Director: Chris Carreras
• Second Assistant Directors: Nick Shuttleworth, Mark S. Constance

This is Mr. Greengrass’s first DGA Award nomination.


STEVE McQUEEN - 12 Years A Slave (Fox Searchlight Pictures)
Mr. McQueen’s Directorial Team:

• Unit Production Manager:  Anthony Katagas
• First Assistant Director: Doug Torres
• Second Assistant Director:  James Roque Jr.
• Second Second Assistant Director: Sherman Shelton Jr.
• Additional Second Assistant Director: Nathan Parker

This is Mr. McQueen’s first DGA Award nomination.


DAVID O. RUSSELL - American Hustle (Columbia Pictures)
Mr. Russell’s Directorial Team:

• Unit Production Managers: Shea Kammer, Mark Kamine
• First Assistant Director: Michele ‘Shelley’ Ziegler
• Second Assistant Director: Xanthus Valan
• Second Second Assistant Director: Jason Fesel
• Location Managers: David Velasco, Guy Efrat (New York Unit)

This is Mr. Russell’s second DGA Award nomination.  He was previously nominated in this category for The Fighter in 2010.


MARTIN SCORSESE - The Wolf of Wall Street (Paramount Pictures)

Mr. Scorsese’s Directorial Team:

• Unit Production Manager: Richard Baratta
• First Assistant Director: Adam Somner
• Second Assistant Director: Francisco Ortiz
• Second Second Assistant Director: Jeremy Marks
• Additional Second Assistant Director: Scott Koche
• Location Manager: Nils Widboom

This is Mr. Scorsese’s eleventh DGA Award nomination.  He won the DGA Award for Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Feature Film in 2006 for The Departed, and has also been nominated in that category for Taxi Driver (1976), Raging Bull (1980), Goodfellas (1990), The Age of Innocence (1993), Gangs of New York (2002), The Aviator (2004) and Hugo (2011). Mr. Scorsese also won the DGA Award in 2010 for Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Dramatic Television for Boardwalk Empire and he was nominated for Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Documentary for George Harrison: Living in the Material World in 2011.  In 1999, Mr. Scorsese was presented with the Filmmaker Award at the inaugural DGA Honors Gala, and he was honored with the DGA Lifetime Achievement Award in 2003.

Ben Affleck wins the DGA!

 The only thing that can derail the Ben Affleck-Argo express is the Oscars because he's not winning Best Director there, he's not even nominated.  However, it was a different story at the Directors Guild of America where Affleck, a first time nominee, beat out previous winners Steven Spielberg, Ang Lee, Tom Hooper and Kathryn Bigelow for the night's top honors.  Good on ya, Ben.  He genuinely looked shocked to be there.  What does this mean for the Oscars though? Does Spielberg or Lee have a better shot or do the newbies Michael Haneke and Benh Zeitlin walk away with it?  February 24th can't come fast enough.  The anticipation is killing me. 

Directors Guild Nominations!

The Directors Guild of America announced their five top directors on Tuesday for their 65th annual awards.  I'm surprised to see Tom Hooper on the list, I thought either David O. Russell or Michael Haneke would be take the fifth spot.  The winners will be announced on February 2, 2013.  The rest of the nominee are listed below.

Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Feature Film

BEN AFFLECK

Argo
(Warner Bros. Pictures) 

This is Mr. Affleck’s first DGA Feature Film Award nomination.

 KATHRYN BIGELOW

Zero Dark Thirty
(Columbia Pictures)

This is Ms. Bigelow’s second DGA Feature Film Award nomination. She won the DGA Award for Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Feature Film for The Hurt Locker in 2009.





TOM HOOPER

Les Misérables
(Universal Pictures)

This is Mr. Hooper's second DGA Feature Film Award nomination. He won the DGA Award for Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Feature Film for The King's Speech (2010) and was previously nominated for the DGA Award for Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Movies for Television/Mini-Series for John Adams in 2008.




ANG LEE

Life of Pi
(Twentieth Century Fox)

This is Mr. Lee’s fourth DGA Feature Film Award nomination. He won the DGA Award for Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Feature Film for Brokeback Mountain (2005) and Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (2000) and was nominated for Sense and Sensibility in 1995.

STEVEN SPIELBERG

Lincoln
(Dreamworks Pictures/Twentieth Century Fox)

This is Mr. Spielberg’s eleventh DGA Feature Film Award nomination. He won the DGA Award for Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Feature Film three times for Saving Private Ryan (1998), Schindler’s List (1993) and The Color Purple (1985). He was also nominated in this category for Munich (2005), Amistad (1997), Empire of the Sun (1987), E.T.: The Extra Terrestrial (1982), Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981), Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977) and Jaws (1975). Mr. Spielberg was honored with the DGA’s Lifetime Achievement Award in 2000.

The DGA Winners 2012

Here are the film winners from the Director's Guild of America awards yesterday.  The Artist wins yet another big award.  Does any other film stand a chance at the Oscars?

Outstanding Directional Achievements in Feature Film

Michel Hazanavicius, The Artist

Outstanding Achievement in Documentary Film

James Marsh, Project Nim