DGA President Jack Shea announced today that former Directors Guild President Robert Wise will be the recipient of the DGA Presidents Award at the 53rd Annual DGA Awards dinner on March 10 at the Century Plaza Hotel in Los Angeles. The Award, which is given for leadership and extraordinary efforts in enhancing the welfare and image of the Directors Guild of America and the industry, is given only by a unanimous vote of former DGA Presidents and the sitting President.
"It seems only fitting that Robert Wise, who has dedicated so much of his professional life to Guild service, should receive this prestigious Award for his leadership and extraordinary service to the Guild and the industry,” said Jack Shea. “It will be with great pleasure that I join with past Guild Presidents on March 10 to present this high honor to him.”
Robert Wise is only the second recipient of the DGA Presidents Award, first given in 1998 to former DGA President George Sidney.
Wise became a member of the DGA in 1945 and began serving in leadership roles at the Directors Guild in 1954 when he joined the National Board of Directors. He served as DGA President from 1971 – 1975.
While Wise’s career as a master filmmaker is undeniably inspiring, so too is his commitment to service to the Guild. In that arena, the project that has been most dear to him is Special Projects: “Special Projects is what I’m most proud of in my service with the Guild, because it is something that has grown to be a highly thought of program and it has extended and broadened its outreach.”
Special Projects began as Elia Kazan’s concept – “A Guild passes on its traditions, sees that they do not die, that the lessons of experience are not ignored, that achievement builds on achievement. The Guild keeps the pride of its members alive, and that pride is the pride in their craft and their work, in their profession.”
Robert Wise, who presented the idea for the project to the DGA National Board, gave Kazan’s concept form. Wise became the Chair at its inception in 1976 – a post he retained for nearly 26 years. Through his continued dedication and commitment, Special Projects has thrived.
Special Projects was envisioned as a means initiating and developing a creative interchange among the members of the DGA and the Educational and Cultural community at large. It was seen as a means of collecting, preserving and sharing all aspects of the directorial experience; a means of capturing the recollections and professional insights, experiences and philosophies of the Guild’s great directors.
Special Projects is committed to developing such programs as Special Event Screenings, Directors Retreats, Workshops and Seminars, New Technology Demonstrations and the Robert E. Wise Library -- a state-of-the-art facility where DGA members have access to the Guild’s collection of written material, audio and video tapes and computer software.
In addition to the Presidents Award, Wise has received the DGA’s Honorary Life Member Award, the DGA’s Robert B. Aldrich Award and, the DGA’s highest tribute, the Lifetime Achievement Award; Wise was an Academy Award Winner and DGA Award Winner for Theatrical Direction of The Sound of Music and West Side Story. Wise has directed over 40 motion pictures, including The Andromeda Strain, The Sand Pebbles, The Haunting, The Hindenburg, Run Silent, Run Deep and The Day the Earth Stood Still.
Wise has served as the Former Member of the National Council on the Arts from 1970-1976, Board of Governors of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences for many terms, Co-Chairman of the Academy’s Scholarship and Grant Program, Founding President of Cinema Circulus, a support group of USC School of Film and Television and Board of Trustee of the Motion Picture Country House and Hospital; Wise also served on the Trustee Committee of the Department of Film, Museum of Modern Art in New York, and was elected President of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences on July 20, 1985, serving 3 one year terms.
