February 27, 2006
For 37 years the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) has celebrated the outstanding achievements and performances of African Americans in the arts, as well as individuals or groups who promote social justice, via the NAACP Image Awards.
While those awards have honored actors, singers, and writers, directors were an overlooked category until DGA executives and members of the DGA’s African American Steering Committee (AASC) met with NAACP Image Awards Executive Producer Vic Bulluck, and urged the creation of three new directing categories: Outstanding Directing in a Feature Film/Television Movie, Outstanding Directing in a Dramatic Series, and Outstanding Directing in a Comedy Series.
“I think we had a conversation with Vic not long after my first term as co-chair of the AASC but the timing wasn’t right, said LeVar Burton. “This year the subject came up again that it seemed to be the right confluence of opportunity, desire and the will to get it done on both sides of the equation. The AASC feels very good about being able to broker this relationship and have this really esteemed organization make a change in their awards policy and honor directors for the first time. I think it’s indicative of how important the NAACP saw the role of the director in the process of film and television.”
On Saturday, February 25, the winners of the 37th Annual NAACP Image Awards were announced during the ceremony. The nominees for Outstanding Directing in a Feature Film/Television Movie included George C. Wolfe for the movie for television Lackawanna Blues, Malcolm Lee for the feature Roll Bounce, Thomas Carter for the feature Coach Carter, and Tim Story for the feature Fantastic Four. The award went to Director John Singleton for the feature Four Brothers. In the Outstanding Directing in a Dramatic Series category, Janice Cooke-Leonard received nominations for the Charmed episode “Vaya Con Leo's”, the One Tree Hill episode “An Attempt to Tip the Scales”, and the Summerland episode “What's Past is Prologue”; while director Phillip G. Atwell was nominated for The Shield episode “String Theory.” The award went to DGA First Vice President Paris Barclay for the Cold Case episode “Strange Fruit.” The nominees for Outstanding Directing in a Comedy Series were Eric Dean Seaton for the “Mind Your Business” episode of That's So Raven, James D. Wilcox for the “The Remodel” episode of My Wife & Kids, Ken Whittingham for the “The Babysitter” episode of Everybody Hates Chris and Mattie C. Caruthers “Michael Sells the Business” episode of My Wife & Kids. The award went to AASC Co-Chair Millicent Shelton for the “Pop, Pop Goes the Weasel” episode of The Bernie Mac Show. All of the nominees were DGA members. “I want to commend the NAACP for rising to the occasion,” said Shelton. “A lot of people might say ‘yeah, it’s just another award,’ but what this also does is show studio and network people African American directors who are being honored for their talents, period. Then they have ammunition when they go to producers who say, ‘I don’t know any African American directors.’ There are African American directors working on shows like Lost and Prison Break and people don’t know that. This is our vehicle to say ‘look there are more African American directors than you think and they’re doing really great work.’”
"I commend both the NAACP and the DGA's African American Steering Committee for their efforts in creating these important awards," said Michael Apted, DGA President and Chair of DGA Diversity Task Force. "We hope that the recognition of these talented directors translates to the hiring of more women and minority directors by television producers and the networks."