January 24, 2000
The Directors Guild of America today announced the five nominees for the DGA Award for Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Feature Film for 1999. The announcement was made by director Steven Spielberg, last year’s DGA Award winner for
Saving Private Ryan, along with DGA President Jack Shea. The winner will be announced at the 52nd Annual DGA Awards Dinner on Saturday, March 11, 2000, at the Century Plaza Hotel in Los Angeles.
The nominees for the Directors Guild of America Award for Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Feature Film for 1999 are (in alphabetical order):
FRANK DARABONT
The Green Mile
Unit Production Manager: L. Dean Jones, Jr.
First Assistant Director: Alan B. Curtiss
Second Assistant Directors: David Bernstein, Jonathan Watson
Second Second Assistant Director: Basti van der Woude
DGA Trainee: Jodie Thomas
SPIKE JONZE
Being John Malkovich
Unit Production Manager: Tim Clawson
First Assistant Director: Thomas Patrick Smith
Second Assistant Director: Mark S. Constance
DGA Trainee: Melinda Johnson
MICHAEL MANN
The Insider
Unit Production Managers: Stephen Lim, Arthur Schaefer, Jr.
First Assistant Director: Michael Waxman
Second Assistant Director: Julie Herrin
Second Second Assistant Directors: Jody Spilkoman Thomas B. van der Woude
DGA Trainee: Jodie Thomas
SAM MENDES
American Beauty
Unit Production Manager: Cristen Carr Strubbe
First Assistant Directors: Tony Adler, Carey Dietrich
Second Assistant Director: Rosemary Cremona
Second Second Assistant Director: Stephanie Kime
M. NIGHT SHYAMALAN
The Sixth Sense
Unit Production Manager: Sam Mercer
First Assistant Director: John Rusk
Second Assistant Director: Scott Robertson
Second Second Assistant Director: Sonia Bhalla
DGA Trainee: Michael Meador
This is Frank Darabont’s second nomination. He was previously nominated in 1994 for The Shawshank Redemption.
The Insider marks Michael Mann’s first DGA nomination in the Feature Film category. In 1979 he won the DGA Award in the Movies for Television category for The Jericho Mile.
Spike Jonze, Sam Mendes and M. Night Shyamalan are all first-time DGA Award nominees.
The feature film nominees will be joined at the 52nd Annual DGA Awards Dinner by the soon-to-be-announced nominees in documentary and television categories, as well as special award honorees.
The DGA Award for Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Feature Film has traditionally been a near perfect barometer for the Best Director Academy Award. Only four times since the DGA Award’s inception in 1949 has the DGA Award winner not won the Academy Award:
- 1968: Anthony Harvey won the DGA Award for The Lion in Winter while Carol Reed took home the Oscar® for Oliver!.
- 1972: Francis Ford Coppola received the DGA’s nod for The Godfather while the Academy selected Bob Fosse for Cabaret.
- 1985: Steven Spielberg received his first DGA Award for The Color Purple while the Oscar® went to Sydney Pollack for Out of Africa.
- 1995: Ron Howard was chosen by the DGA for his direction of Apollo 13 while Academy voters cited Mel Gibson for Braveheart.