Directors Guild Of America

The academy bucked tradition Sunday night by overlooking some nominees who had won the industry's guild awards. Over the years, the major guild winners became predictors for the academy's final nominee selections. Not this time. Director--Ang Lee, who won the Directors Guild of America's top prize, lost out to Steven Soderbergh for "Traffic"--making it only the fifth time since 1949 that the DGA winner hasn't won on Oscar night.

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."

Ang Lee, the Taiwanese-born director of this year's foreign film box office hit "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon," was named best director by his peers at the Directors Guild of America awards dinner Saturday night. Lee, who was nominated by the DGA for the first time, beat out Steven Soderbergh, nominated for the real-life drama "Erin Brockovich" and the drug trade docudrama "Traffic," Ridley Scott ("Gladiator") and Cameron Crowe ("Almost Famous") for the prestigious award. "Wow, it is too much.

Now that the Directors Guild of America has given Steven Soderbergh nominations for both "Traffic" and "Erin Brockovich," the table is set for the director to achieve a rare feat--two best director Oscar nominations. In Hollywood, where Oscar campaigns have become as expensive and cutthroat as presidential electioneering, this has led to an orgy of industry hand-wringing: If Soderbergh doesn't support one movie over the other, his two nominations will cancel each other out.

Steven Soderbergh will face off against . . . Steven Soderbergh as the Directors Guild of America announced its nominations Monday for best feature film director with Soderbergh capturing two, for "Erin Brockovich" and "Traffic." Besides the dual nominations for Soderbergh, other directors nominated included Ridley Scott for "Gladiator," Ang Lee for "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon," and Cameron Crowe for "Almost Famous." The DGA awards will be handed out March 10.

Elections, voting, ballots, chads, recounts. As the country deals with one of the most bizarre presidential elections in history, the voting that really matters in Hollywood--this year's movie awards--is just beginning. Over the next three months, film critics, journalists, members of the Writers Guild of America, the Directors Guild of America, the Screen Actors Guild and, of course, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences will be casting their votes for the best of 2000.

Prompted by the recent Federal Trade Commission report regarding violence in the media and ways it is marketed to American youth, the Directors Guild of America on Thursday called for changes in the current movie ratings system. A DGA task force urged that an alternative to the current NC-17 rating, which bans all minors from certain films, be developed.

When is a house not a home? When it's a film set. Offering the public a behind-the-scenes view of how some movie magic is made, the Art Directors Guild, in partnership with House Beautiful magazine, has constructed a 2,500-square-foot, fully furnished set in the style of a 1920s- to '30s-era Hollywood bungalow, on display at the Pacific Design Center through the end of this month.

A year ago, he wasn't even a member of the Directors Guild of America, but now Sam Mendes stands a good chance of walking off with one of the most coveted honors in Hollywood: the Academy Award for best director. The odds that the British stage director will capture the coveted Oscar on March 26 for his debut film, "American Beauty," were enhanced dramatically Saturday night when the 12,000-member DGA awarded Mendes its top honor for a feature-length movie.

It had been weighing on his mind for more than a year, ever since several African American directors expressed concern that the Directors Guild of America's prestigious life achievement award was named for D.W. Griffith, whose 1915 film "The Birth of a Nation" glorified the Ku Klux Klan and seared racial stereotypes into the collective conscience of moviegoers everywhere. Jack Shea, the president of the guild, came away from that encounter unsettled.