February 1, 2009
LOS ANGELES, CA - The winners of the 2008 Directors Guild of America Outstanding Directorial Achievement Awards and the recipients of the Guild's 2009 Career Achievement Awards were announced tonight during the 61st Annual DGA Awards Dinner at the Hyatt Regency Century Plaza in Los Angeles. Danny Boyle won the DGA's Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Feature Film for Slumdog Millionaire.
Following the welcome by DGA President Michael Apted to an audience of more than 1,500 guests, actor/comedian Jon Cryer (Two and a Half Men) hosted the ceremony.
Presenters included: Amy Adams* and Viola Davis* (Doubt), Christian Bale (The Dark Knight), Josh Brolin* and Sean Penn* (Milk), DGA Secretary/Treasurer Gil Cates, Claire Danes (Stardust), Lisa Edelstein (House), Jodie Foster (Panic Room), Rachel Griffiths (Brothers & Sisters), Richard Jenkins* (The Visitor), Taraji P. Henson* (The Curious Case of Benjamin Button), Frank Langella* and Michael Sheen (Frost/Nixon), Melissa Leo* (Frozen River), Michelle Monaghan (Eagle Eye), Dev Patel and Freida Pinto (Slumdog Millionaire), Michael Shannon (Revolutionary Road), DGA National Vice President Steven Soderbergh, Marisa Tomei* (The Wrestler), Blair Underwood (In Treatment), and 2007 DGA Feature Film Award winners Joel and Ethan Coen (No Country for Old Men).
*2009 Academy Award Nominee
The DGA's Award for Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Feature Film has traditionally served as a near-perfect barometer for the Academy Award for Best Director. Only six times since the DGA Award's inception in 1948 has the winner not gone on to receive the Academy Award for Best Director. (See list at the end of this release)
The winners of the 2008 Directors Guild of America Awards for Outstanding Directorial Achievement, and the recipients of the Guild's 2009 Career Achievement Awards are:
DANNY BOYLE
Slumdog Millionaire
(Fox Searchlight Pictures and Warner Bros. Pictures)
Mr. Boyle's Directorial Team:
- Unit Production Manager: Sanjay Kumar
- First Assistant Director: Raj Acharya
- Second Assistant Director: Avani Batra
- Second Second Assistant Director: Sonia Nemawarkar
This is Mr. Boyle's first DGA Feature Film Award.
The DGA Award for Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Feature Film has traditionally been one of the industry's most accurate barometers for who will win the Best Director Academy Award.
Only six times since the DGA Awards began in 1948 has the Feature Film winner not gone on to win the corresponding Academy Award.
The six exceptions are as follows:
- 1968: Anthony Harvey won the DGA Award for The Lion in Winter while Carol Reed took home the Oscar® for Oliver!
- 1972: Francis Ford Coppola received the DGA's nod for The Godfather while the Academy selected Bob Fosse for Cabaret.
- 1985: Steven Spielberg received his first DGA Award for The Color Purple while the Oscar® went to Sydney Pollack for Out of Africa.
- 1995: Ron Howard was chosen by the DGA for his direction of Apollo 13 while Academy voters selected Mel Gibson for Braveheart.
- 2000: Ang Lee won the DGA Award for his direction of Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon while Steven Soderbergh won the Academy Award for Traffic.
- 2002: Rob Marshall won the DGA Award for Chicago at the 55th Annual DGA Awards while Roman Polanski received the Academy Award for The Pianist.
The 62nd Annual DGA Awards will be held on Saturday, January 30, 2010