The Directors Guild Of America (DGA) announced its 2014 award winners last night and, perhaps to no one’s surprise, Mexican filmmaker Alfonso Cuarón won the top directing prize for “Gravity.” A spectacular visual achievement that took four years to make, Cuarón was arguably the frontrunner for some time, but the competition was tough and included Martin Scorsese for “The Wolf Of Wall Street,” David O. Russell for “American Hustle,” Steve McQueen for “12 Years A Slave” and “Captain Phillips”-helmer Paul Greengrass.
Like all guild awards, the DGA winner is usually the strongest augur for the Oscar outcome, but last year that correlation was thrown for a loop when Ben Affleck won the DGA prize for “Argo,” but failed to even score an Oscar nomination for Best Director (instead Michael Haneke and Benh Zeitlin were nominated; Affleck, however, arguably had the last laugh when “Argo” won Best Picture). The DGAs didn’t completely match up completely with Oscar this year either (Greengrass was left out in the cold and “Nebraksa”-filmmaker Alexander Payne earned a Best Directing nomination instead). Statistically however, DGA winners go on to take the Oscar prize 90% of the time. In 65 years, only 7 DGA winners failed to win the Academy Award (including the Affleck outlier).
“This is truly an honor and I am humbled by it,” Cuarón told the audience, which included Affleck who presented him with the prize, after his win, “Directing is about the work of your collaborators.” “Gravity” has grossed more than all of the other Best Picture nominees this year, both domestically and internationally (worldwide it’s made $678.4, more than the other nominees’ combined total).
In the documentary field Jehane Noujaim, bested celebrated docs like “The Act Of Killing” and “Cutie And The Boxer” to win for her remarkable Egyptian revolution film, “The Square,” which would also bode well for Oscar if that field weren’t such a toss up each year. Lastly, while he may have “retired,” Steven Soderbergh took two DGA prizes this year, one for the Movies For Television And Mini-Series award (“Behind The Candelabra”) and the honorary Robert B. Aldrich award for service and achievement. Showrunner/director Vince Gilligan also not-so-surprisingly won an award for “Breaking Bad.”
FEATURE FILM
WINNER: Alfonso Cuarón, Gravity
Paul Greengrass, Captain Phillips
Steve McQueen, Twelve Years A Slave
David O. Russell, American Hustle
Martin Scorsese, The Wolf of Wall Street
DOCUMENTARY
Zachary Heinzerling, Cutie and the Boxer
WINNER: Jehane Noujaim, The Square
Joshua Oppenheimer, The Act of Killing
Sarah Polley, Stories We Tell
Lucy Walker, The Crash Wheel
DRAMATIC SERIES
Bryan Cranston, Breaking Bad, “Blood Money”
David Fincher, House of Cards, “Chapter 1”
WINNER: Vince Gilligan, Breaking Bad, “Felina”
Lesli Linka Glatter, Homeland, “The Star”
David Nutter, Game of Thrones, “The Rains of Castamere”
COMEDY SERIES
Mark Cendrowski, The Big Bang Theory, “The Hofstadter Insufficiency”
Bryan Cranston, Modern Family, “The Old Man & The Tree”
Gail Mancuso, Modern Family, “My Hero”
WINNER: Beth McCarthy-Miller, 30 Rock, “Hogcock!/Last Lunch”
Anthony Rich, The Big Bang Theory, “The Love Spell Potential”
MOVIES FOR TELEVISION AND MINI-SERIES
Stephen Frears, Muhammad Ali’s Greatest Fight
David Mamet, Phil Spector
Beth McCarthy-Miller and Rob Ashford, The Sound of Music Live!
Nelson McCormick, Killing Kennedy
WINNER: Steven Soderbergh, Behind the Candelabra
VARIETY/TALK/NEWS/SPORTS – REGULARLY SCHEDULED PROGRAMMING
Dave Diomedi, Late Night With Jimmy Fallon, “#799”
Andy Fisher, Jimmy Kimmel Live, “#13-1810”
Jim Hoskinson, The Colbert Report, “#10004”
WINNER: Don Roy King, Saturday Night Live, “Saturday Night Live with Host Justin Timberlake”
Chuck O’Neil, The Daily Show With Jon Stewart, “#19018”
VARIETY/TALK/NEWS/SPORTS – SPECIALS
Louis C.K., Louis C.K.: Oh My God
Joel Gallen, 2013 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony
Louis J. Horvitz, The 55th Annual Grammy Awards
Don Mischer, The 85th Annual Academy Awards
WINNER: Glenn Weiss, The 67th Annual Tony Awards
REALITY PROGRAMS
Matthew Bartley, The Biggest Loser, “1501”
WINNER: Neil P. DeGroot, 72 Hours, “The Lost Coast”
Paul Starkman, Top Chef, “Glacial Gourmand”
J. Rupert Thompson, The Hero, “Teamwork”
Betram van Munster, The Amazing Race, “Beards in the Wind”
CHILDREN’S PROGRAMS
Stephen Herek, Jinxed
Jeffrey Hornaday, Teen Beach Movie
Jonathan Judge, Swindle
WINNER: Amy Schatz, An Apology to Elephants
Adam Weissman, A.N.T. Farm
COMMERCIALS
Fredrik Bond, Voyage, Heineken; From The Future, Johnny Walker
John X. Carey, Real Beauty Sketches, Dove
WINNER: Martin de Thurah, The Man Who Couldn’t Slow Down, Hennessy VS; Human Race, Acura MDX 2014
Matthijs van Heijningen, Perfect Day, Sony Playstation; #Forty Eight, Verizon
Noam Murro, Basketball, Guinness; Kids, DIRECTV; Mask, Volkswagen
ROBERT B. ALDRICH AWARD: Steven Soderbergh