Ang Lee to Receive the DGA Lifetime Achievement Award at the 77th Annual DGA Awards

Los Angeles – The Directors Guild of America (DGA) announced today that Ang Lee will receive the Guild’s highest honor, the DGA Lifetime Achievement Award, at the 77th Annual DGA Awards on Saturday, February 8, 2025. Awarded at the discretion of current and past DGA presidents, this tribute recognizes extraordinary achievements in the art of cinema and motion picture direction.

“Ang Lee is truly a master filmmaker. For over 30 years, he has directed a dynamic body of work that boldly cuts across genres – from period drama to comedy, adventure to western, superhero to martial arts – always fearlessly taking on new challenges, never repeating himself, and consistently achieving cinematic excellence,” said DGA President Lesli Linka Glatter. “Through his films, Ang invites his audiences to explore complex characters that linger in your heart and mind long after the screen has gone dark. From his earliest features like The Wedding Banquet to artistic and commercial successes like Brokeback Mountain, Life of Pi and Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, Ang’s work is consistently recognized by critics, festivals and audiences for its brilliant storytelling and technological innovations. His unique approach has left an indelible mark on the history of cinema that will be celebrated for generations to come. The DGA couldn’t be prouder to honor Ang Lee as a recipient of our Lifetime Achievement Award.”

“I am honored to be recognized in such an incredible way by my beloved Guild,” said Ang Lee. “To be given the DGA Lifetime Achievement Award is a momentous achievement for me personally, and an opportunity to reflect on what my work has meant to this amazing community of my fellow filmmakers.”

Lee joined the DGA in 1996. The Guild awarded him with a DGA Honor for his contributions to American culture through his support of the nation's film and television industry in 2018. He won the DGA Award for the Feature Film category twice, once in 2000 for Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon and again in 2005 for Brokeback Mountain, which also won an Academy Award for Best Director. He was nominated in the same category in 1995 for Sense and Sensibility, and again in 2012 for Life of Pi. Lee’s groundbreaking work also includes Eat Drink Man Woman (1994), The Ice Storm (1997), Hulk (2003), Lust, Caution (2007) and most recently Gemini Man (2019).

In the Guild’s 88-year history, just 36 Directors have been recognized with this honor including Frank Capra (1959), Alfred Hitchcock (1968), Orson Welles (1984), Billy Wilder (1985), Steven Spielberg (2000), Martin Scorsese (2003), Miloš Forman (2013), Ridley Scott (2017), and most recently Spike Lee (2022).

About Ang Lee

Ang Lee is widely recognized for his artistic risk-taking, and filmmaking achievements across a wide array of genres. His directing credits include Brokeback Mountain, for which he won the DGA Award for Outstanding Directorial Achievement and the Academy Award in 2005; Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, for which he won the DGA Award in 2000; Life of Pi, for which he won the Academy Award and was nominated for the DGA Award in 2012; Sense and Sensibility, for which he was nominated for the DGA Award in 1995; the technologically groundbreaking Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk, which was shot at 120 frames per second and combined 3D and 4K technology; and Lust, Caution, which swept Asia’s Golden Horse Awards in 2007. Lee’s other films include Pushing Hands, The Wedding Banquet, Eat Drink Man Woman, Hulk, Taking Woodstock, Ride with the Devil, The Ice Storm and Gemini Man.

Lee earned his Masters of Fine Arts degree in film production from New York University. His short film Fine Line won Best Director and Best Film awards at the annual NYU Film Festival.

Past recipients of the DGA Lifetime Achievement Award: