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.