First Female Director Wins DGA Top Prize

SERIES: Hollywood Guild Awards and Oscars®

 
Kathryn Bigelow

Director Kathryn Bigelow won the 2009 Director's Guild of America's Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Feature Film for THE HURT LOCKER Saturday, 30 January. The 62nd Annual DGA Awards Dinner held in the Hyatt Regency Century Plaza in Los Angeles made cinema history.

Bigelow is the first female director to win the top DGA award. Director Norman Jewison received the DGA Lifetime Achievement Award for Distinguished Achievement in Motion Picture Direction.

Some movie pundits are speculating that the race for the Oscar has anointed a leader for Best Motion Picture of 2009 before the announcement of the Oscar® nominees Tuesday, which is the official "starting gun" for the race. Saturday, the DGA top prize went to director Bigelow and her movie THE HURT LOCKER. The war drama set in Iraq also took the best film honors at the Producers Guild last week.

The top award was presented to Bigelow by director Danny Boyle, who won the same award with his movie SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE last year. Each went on to win an Academy Award®. As a matter of fact, in the 60 years this award has been given, the DGA winner has gone on to win the best picture Oscar in 54 of 60 years.

Not only is Kathryn Bigelow the first woman to get this DGA award, no female has ever won an Oscar for directing. This year Begelow could possibly win two Oscars, directing and best picture. After all, she is one of the ex-wives of director James Cameron, and in all fairness, he has supported her efforts in this project.

The award for outstanding directorial achievement in documentary went to Louie Psihoyos for THE COVE, about the clandestine slaughter of dolphins in Japan. In television, 'Mad Men' and 'Modern Family' received the best series nods, and best made for TV movie went to TAKING CHANCE, directed by Ross Katz.

For a full list of winners, click here.

For more about Kathryn Bigelow, click title of this post.

HURT, UP, COVE & PRECIOUS Receive Top PGA Awards

SERIES: Hollywood Guild Awards and Oscars®

THE HURT LOCKER, about a risk-taking bomb disposal technician, produced and directed by Kathryn Bigelow, was named best picture by the Producers Guild of American (PGA) at the 21st Annual PGA Awards ceremony held Sunday, 24 January 2010, at the Hollywood Palladium.

The PGA, a national non-profit trade group committed to protecting the rights and credits of producers in film, television and new media, honored the movie PRECIOUS: BASED ON THE NOVEL ‘PUSH’ BY SAPPHIRE with the 2010 Stanley Kramer Award.

Also, John Lasseter, Chief Creative Officer, Walt Disney and Pixar Animation Studios, and Principal Creative Advisor, Walt Disney Imagineering received the 2010 David O. Selznick Achievement Award in Motion Pictures. Lasseter is the first producer of animated films to be awarded the Selznick Award by the PGA and was the co-recipient of the PGA’s first-ever Vanguard Award in 2002.

Here are the winners with producers and directors in the best feature motion picture categories:

Feature Motion Picture: THE HURT LOCKER - producer & director Kathryn Bigelow.

Animated Theatrical Motion Picture: UP - Jonas Rivera, directed by Peter Doctor.

Documentary Theatrical Motion Picture: THE COVE - Paula DuPre Pesman, Fisher Stevens, and directed by Louie Psihoyos.

Also, must mention one TV show here. 30 Rock lost the Best TV Comedy title to Glee at the Screen Actors Guild Awards on Saturday, but it managed to take home Producers Guild Awards on Sunday. The award of Danny Thomas Producer of the Year went to the comedy's producers Lorne Michaels, Tina Fey and co., after they beat producers of Californication, Entourage, Weeds and The Office. Lorne Michaels also produces Saturday Night Live.

To see all the nominees and winners, click the title of this post.

Hollywood Film Festival Honors Announced

Bigelow directs HURT LOCKER

At the 13th annual Hollywood Film Festival (HFF), which will run 21 - 26 October 2009 in Hollywood, director Lee Daniels will receive the "Hollywood Breakthrough Director Award" at the gala Hollywood Awards 26 October. He is the director of what may turn out to be the year's "hottest" movie, PRECIOUS: BASED ON THE NOVEL PUSH BY SAPPHIRE. Most recently, Daniels produced MONSTERS BALL and directed SHADOWBOXER. For more about PRECIOUS, see previous posts.

HFF founder and executive director Carlos de Abreu announced that two ladies of cinema, Kathryn Bigelow and Nora Ephron, will receive the Hollywood Director Award and the Hollywood Screenwriter Award, respectively. Bigelow's current directorial endeavor, THE HURT LOCKER, a war film with Iraq as the subject, is receiving critical acclaim. She has been tapped to receive an award at the 19th Annual Gotham Independent Film Awards 30 November in New York City. Her previous credits include POINT BREAK, STRANGE DAYS and BLUE STEEL.

Ephron most recently wrote JULIE & JULIA, and her previous works include HEARTBURN, YOU'VE GOT MAIL and BEWITCHED. She received Oscar® nominations for SILKWOOD, WHEN HARRY MET SALLY, and SLEEPLESS IN SEATTLE.

Pete Docter, the director of the Disney/Pixar release UP, which has earned more than $500m worldwide, will receive The Hollywood Animation Award. Visual Effects Supervisor Scott Farrar will take home the Hollywood Visual Effects Award for TRANSFORMERS: REVENGE OF THE FALLEN.

Docter's directorial debut was MONSTERS, INC., earning him an Academy Award® nomination right out of the gate. Then, he received another nomination as screenwriter of WALL-E. He also developed the story and characters for TOY STORY, and wrote the original story treatment for TOY STORY 2. Buena Vista is releasing both films in 3D for a two-week run to qualify them for the Academy Awards. For more about UP and Docter, see previous posts.

Farrar joined Industrial Light & Magic in 1981 as a camera operator on STAR TREK II: THE WRATH OF KHAN. and was visual effects supervisor on WHO FRAMED ROGER RABBIT. He won the Oscar in 1985 for his effects work on COCOON and since then has received nominations for THE CHRONICLES OF NARNIA, BACKDRAFT, A.I. ans TRANSFORMERS.