Director Martin Scorsese to Receive Guild's Highest Tribute at 55th Annual DGA Awards Celebration

55th DGA Awards Lifetime Achievement Martin Scorsese

January 16, 2003

Martin Scorsese has been selected to receive the Lifetime Achievement Award by the Directors Guild of America, DGA President Martha Coolidge announced today. The Lifetime Achievement Award honors distinguished career achievement in motion picture directing, and is the Guild's highest tribute. Scorsese will be officially presented with the Award at the 55th Annual DGA Awards on March 1, 2003.

"The DGA's Lifetime Achievement Award is not presented on an annual basis," said Coolidge. "In the Guild's 67 year history, only 29 directors have previously been recognized with this, our highest honor. Because of his remarkable, groundbreaking films, his nurturing of young filmmakers, and his ever vigilant fight to preserve the legacy of motion picture art for future generations, it is my pleasure to announce that Martin Scorsese has joined this group of film giants."

Scorsese joins an illustrious list of DGA Lifetime Achievement Award winners, including Steven Spielberg, Francis Ford Coppola, Stanley Kubrick, Woody Allen, Billy Wilder, Orson Welles, Alfred Hitchcock, Frank Capra and John Ford. [A complete list of winners follows this release.] Awardees are selected by the present and past Presidents of the Guild.

Scorsese's directing career has spanned more than four decades, and his passion for filmmaking is apparent in all of his films, which include Gangs of New York, Casino, Cape Fear, Goodfellas, The Last Temptation of Christ, The Color of Money, King of Comedy, Raging Bull, Taxi Driver, Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore and Mean Streets.

In addition to the DGA Lifetime Achievement Award, Scorsese has received numerous other Awards and Nominations including: DGA Award Nominations for Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Feature Film for The Age of Innocence, Goodfellas, Raging Bull and Taxi Driver; Academy Award nominations for Goodfellas, The Last Temptation of Christ and Raging Bull; Golden Globe nominations for Casino, Age of Innocence, Goodfellas, and Raging Bull; and, the Cannes Film Festival Best Director Award for After Hours. Scorsese also received the DGA Honors Award in 1999 for his exemplary contribution to the Eastern Region production community and The Artists Rights Foundation's John Huston Award for his work in film protection and preservation in 1996. In 1991, he received the Congressional Arts Caucus Award for his vision in making and preserving films.

'There are few who have impacted our industry in the numerous ways that Marty has, Coolidge said. "Marty's footprints are beside those of our past recipients."

The DGA Lifetime Achievement Award was first presented in 1953, and has been bestowed twenty-nine times.

  • 1953 - Cecil B. De Mille
  • 1954 - John Ford
  • 1956 - Henry King
  • 1957 - King Vidor
  • 1959 - Frank Capra
  • 1960 - George Stevens
  • 1961 - Frank Borzage
  • 1966 - William Wyler
  • 1968 - Alfred Hitchcock
  • 1970 - Fred Zinnemann
  • 1973 - David Lean
  • 1973 - William A. Wellman
  • 1981 - George Cukor
  • 1982 - Rouben Mamoulian
  • 1983 - John Huston
  • 1984 - Orson Welles
  • 1985 - Billy Wilder
  • 1986 - Joseph L. Mankiewicz
  • 1987 - Elia Kazan
  • 1988 - Robert E. Wise
  • 1990 - Ingmar Bergman
  • 1992 - Akira Kurosawa
  • 1993 - Sidney Lumet
  • 1994 - Robert Altman
  • 1995 - James Ivory
  • 1996 - Woody Allen
  • 1997 - Stanley Kubrick
  • 1998 - Francis Ford Coppola
  • 2000 - Steven Spielberg
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