On March 29, the DGA, Writer’s Guild of America (WGA) and Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) held a special a tribute honoring DGA Preston Sturges Lifetime Achievement Award recipient Blake Edwards who passed away in December 2010.

The DGA’s Los Angeles theater was a fitting venue as Edwards, a member of the Guild since 1953, was also nominated for the DGA Feature Film award for Breakfast at Tiffany’s in 1961. In 1993 he joined Billy Wilder and Richard Brooks as the only recipients of the Sturges Award, an honor given jointly by both the DGA and the WGA. In 2004, Edwards was also awarded by AMPAS with an honorary Oscar in recognition of his writing, directing and producing an extraordinary body of work for the screen.

The evening began with a reception in the DGA Grand Lobby that was decorated with Edwards’ personal artwork and posters from his classic films like The Great Race, 10, and Victor/Victoria. Inside DGA Theater One, the ceremony began with a welcome from DGA President Taylor Hackford. Hackford spoke briefly about Edwards’ multi-talented career, and said, “Blake Edwards was a ‘triple threat man’ in the finest sense of that phrase. He was a brilliant writer, director, and producer, who created some of the most successful films of the last half century.”

Following a screenings of clips from Edwards work, other speakers on the dais included AMPAS President Tom Sherak, WGA President John Wells, and many of Edwards’ collaborators, friends and family members including his widow, actress Julie Andrews who starred in many of his films.

Edwards’ career began as a writer on Richard Diamond, Private Eye. He also found success on television, creating the shows Mr. Lucky and Peter Gunn, before moving into features to make some of the most iconic films of his era including Experiment in Terror, Days of Wine and Roses, Darling Lili, The Tamarind Seed, Wild Rovers, and The Pink Panther series.