Directors Guild Of America

Directors Guild of America negotiators angrily walked out of the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers' Sherman Oaks headquarters Sunday, after getting no response to the contract proposals they submitted last week. But guild President Gilbert Cates said the union did not plan to strike before 6 p.m. Friday, which guild negotiators set as a "deadline" for a reply by the producers. "I'm just . . .

If history is any indicator, this could be Martin Scorsese's year to finally take home an Oscar. The Directors Guild of America on Saturday named Scorsese best director of 2006 for "The Departed." It is the first win in the category for the iconoclastic filmmaker, who had been nominated seven times before. "I can't believe this," a stunned Scorsese said after accepting the award, a hug from presenter Steven Spielberg and a standing ovation from the audience.

The Directors Guild of America's decision to accept a percentage of the profits, rather than a flat sum, as residual compensation for hourlong series programming in syndication may rescue some television episodes from languishing on the shelves--but it will probably not cause a boom in the production or distribution of hourlong TV series, industry spokesmen said Tuesday.

In an important precursor to this year's Academy Awards, James Cameron on Saturday won the 50th Directors Guild of America feature film award for "Titanic," the blockbuster hit about the sinking of the famed luxury liner. "I used to always say in interviews that I made movies and not films. 'Remains of the Day' is a film, 'Terminator 2' is a movie," Cameron said in accepting the award. "Now that I have this, I have to admit I may have inadvertently made a film."

Negotiators representing Hollywood directors reached agreement on a labor pact with studios and networks Thursday that could prompt two other key entertainment guilds to resolve their contract differences. The 12,800-member Directors Guild of America and the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers agreed to a new three-year deal, which includes a boost in healthcare benefits and increases in pay and residuals.

Bernardo Bertolucci won the Directors Guild of America's feature film award, apparently boosting the odds that his "The Last Emperor" will finish strong in next month's Oscar race. With rare exception, the guild award winner has gone on to claim the Academy Award for directing; the film has often been selected as best picture of the year. At the awards banquet Saturday at the Beverly Hilton Hotel, the Italian director argued for more sophisticated movie making.

Latino members of the Directors Guild of America have formed a formal committee to boost members' standing in the Hollywood community. Latinos make up 1% of the guild's 5,300 director-members, and have typically been passed over for projects that do not have ethnic themes, said Jesus Trevino, the committee's chairman and one of its founders.

Directors from episodes of ABC's "thirtysomething," CBS' "Cagney & Lacey" and NBC's "St. Elsewhere" were nominated for awards Monday by the Directors Guild of America in one of eight categories for 1987 television work. The DGA's nominees for outstanding directorial achievement in a nighttime dramatic series were Marshall Herskovitz for the pilot episode of "thirtysomething," Sharron Miller for the "Turn, Turn, Turn, Pt. 1" episode of "Cagney & Lacey" and Mark C.

The volatile issue of how writers, directors and actors are to be paid when TV shows are downloaded is heating up again, with their unions accusing the ABC network of violating collective bargaining agreements. The Screen Actors Guild, the Writers Guild of America, West, and the Directors Guild of America all issued statements this week criticizing the Walt Disney Co.-owned network for deciding to pay residuals on TV episode sales to video iPod users under the same payment formula for DVD sales.

In its first detailed response to the halt in contract talks between Hollywood writers and studios earlier this month, the Directors Guild of America said it opposes a proposal by writers to limit film credits for directors. DGA President Jack Shea, in a letter to members that was released Tuesday, dismisses both Writers Guild of America and studio contentions that progress is being made toward the resolution of this and other "creative issues."