DGA Awards Kick Off Year-Long Celebration of Guild's 75th Anniversary

LOS ANGELES – The Directors Guild of America today announced that the DGA will launch a year-long celebration of the DGA's 75th anniversary at the DGA Awards on January 29. DGA Award winners Kathryn Bigelow, James Cameron, Francis Ford Coppola, Clint Eastwood, John Rich, Martin Scorsese and Steven Spielberg, the evening's co-chairs, will join the program in special presentations to highlight game-changing moments in DGA history.

"Our members have always understood what a huge debt we owe to those who came before us. Illuminating our history informs so much of who we are today," said Guild President Taylor Hackford. "The DGA was created in 1936 when a handful of the best-known directors of the time – including King Vidor, John Ford and Howard Hawks – banded together to protect the economic and basic rights of the director in motion pictures. From that initial struggle, our Guild has grown to represent 14,500 directors and members of the directorial team working in film, television, commercials and new media. Because this is a freelance industry, the benefits that the DGA provides our members, such as contract negotiations, residuals, creative rights and pension and health plans, ensure our ability to continue doing the work we love."

Past-president Michael Apted is serving as chair of the year-long anniversary. "We've got quite a lot to celebrate, and so we're going to take the whole year to do it," he said. "Since the DGA Awards celebrate the year's outstanding directorial achievements in film and television, we thought it would be the right time and right place to launch our celebration."

The theme of the anniversary year is "Game Changers." Throughout 2011, the DGA will hold events honoring directors whose impact on film and television forever "changed the game" and influenced generations of filmmakers that followed. DGA Quarterly will publish four special anniversary issues focusing on different game-changing periods in DGA history. The DGA will launch a brand-new website in early spring; anniversary content including the milestone moments highlighted at the DGA Awards will figure prominently on the new site. Further details of the year's events will be released after the DGA Awards.

The DGA Awards will take place at Hollywood & Highland's Grand Ballroom on January 29.

	Kathryn Bigelow became the first woman to win the DGA Award for Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Feature Film last year for The Hurt Locker.
	James Cameron won the DGA Award for Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Feature Film in 1997 for Titanic. He was nominated in 2009 for Avatar.
	Francis Ford Coppola won the DGA Award for Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Feature Film in 1972 for The Godfather and again in 1974 for The Godfather Part II. He was nominated in 1974 for The Conversation; in 1979 for Apocalypse Now; and in 1990 for The Godfather Part III. Coppola was awarded the DGA Lifetime Achievement Award in 1998.
	Clint Eastwood won the DGA Award for Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Feature Film in 1992 for Unforgiven and again in 2004 for Million Dollar Baby. He was nominated in 2003 for Mystic River. Eastwood was awarded the DGA Lifetime Achievement Award in 2006.
	John Rich won the DGA Award for Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Comedy Series in 1971 for All in the Family. He also won the DGA Award for Most Outstanding TV Director that same year. He was also nominated in 1972 for All in the Family. Rich was honored with the Aldrich Award for extraordinary service to the Guild and its membership in 1993 and the Honorary Life Member Award in 2003.
	Martin Scorsese won the DGA Award for Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Feature Film in 2006 for The Departed. He was nominated in 1976 for Taxi Driver; in 1980 for Raging Bull; in 1990 for Goodfellas; in 1993 for The Age of Innocence; in 2002 for Gangs of New York; and in 2004 for The Aviator. Scorsese received the Filmmaker Award for DGA Honors in 1999 and the DGA Lifetime Achievement Award in 2003.
	Steven Spielberg won the DGA Award for Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Feature Film in 1985 for The Color Purple; in 1993 for Schindler's List; and in 1998 for Saving Private Ryan. He was nominated in 1975 for Jaws; in 1977 for Close Encounters of the Third Kind; in 1981 for Raiders of the Lost Ark; in 1982 for E.T.: The Extra Terrestrial; in 1987 for Empire of the Sun; in 1997 for Amistad; and in 2005 for Munich. Spielberg was honored with the DGA Lifetime Achievement Award in 2000.