The Directors Guild of America has announced the recipients of two special DGA Awards recognizing extraordinary contribution to the Guild: UPM Kathleen McGill and associate director Mimi (Marian) Deaton will be honored at the 71st Annual DGA Awards on Saturday, February 2, 2019 at the Hollywood & Highland Center’s Ray Dolby Ballroom in Hollywood.
McGill will receive the DGA’s 2019 Frank Capra Achievement Award, which is given to an assistant director or unit production manager in recognition of career achievement in the industry and service to the Directors Guild of America.
Deaton will receive the DGA’s 2019 Franklin J. Schaffner Achievement Award, which is given to an associate director or stage manager in recognition of service to the industry and to the Directors Guild of America.
“Kathy and Mimi embody the type of leadership, dedication and distinguished commitment that these special Awards were designed to celebrate,” said Thomas Schlamme, DGA president. “Even with active, successful careers, they have both devoted countless hours in service to the DGA representing their fellow members and advocating on their behalf, strengthening our Guild and reinforcing our mission to protect and promote the economic and creative rights of our members.”
The awards will be presented at the 71st Annual DGA Awards on Saturday, February 2, 2019
Kathleen McGill
McGill began her entertainment career as a production accountant before joining the Guild as a UPM in 1995. Since becoming a DGA member, she has focused on educating and mentoring her fellow members, all the while steadily working as a UPM on major motion pictures including Brian DePalma’s Snake Eyes and Ron Howard’s The Da Vinci Code, Frost/Nixon and his DGA Award-winning feature, A Beautiful Mind. Since 2012 she has worked as the UPM on the X-Men franchise including Bryan Singer’s X-Men: Days of Future Past and X-Men: Apocalypse, and is currently at work on Simon Kinberg’s X-Men: Dark Phoenix.
McGill’s service to the DGA began when she was first elected to the Eastern AD/UPM Council in 2000. She has since served ten terms on the Council including being elected Council chair from 2014-2017. Currently a DGA National Board member, McGill was first elected to the Board in 2003 as an alternate and has since served eight consecutive terms.
McGill also served on the DGA Negotiations Committee for the 2011, 2014 and 2017 negotiations cycles, and as a delegate to the DGA Biennial Conventions. Her various committee appointments through the years include the First-Time Feature Film Award Screening Committee, the DGA Honors Committee, and several Eastern AD/UPM Council Committees.
Mimi (Marian) Deaton
Deaton has been a member of the DGA for over three decades. She has served on the Western AD/SM/PA Council for 21 years, including spending the last four as second vice-chair of the Council. In 2017, she was elected as a second alternate on the DGA National Board.
Deaton began her associate director career working on classic sitcoms. Her extensive experience in the multi-camera genre includes 119 episodes of Martin, 92 episodes of the Facts of Life, 80 episodes of Reba, and more. She has also been very active in the Guild’s work to expand multi-camera creative rights. Her other work includes episodes of sitcoms such as The Neighborhood; Bizaardvark; Nicky, Ricky, Dicky & Dawn; Melissa & Joey; The Soul Man; and Carol & Company.
Since first being elected to the Western AD/SM/PA Council as an alternate in 1998, Deaton’s service to the DGA also includes her time on the DGA Negotiating Committee during the 2002, 2005, 2008, 2014 and 2017 negotiations cycles. She was instrumental in the Guild’s fight to increase the Basic Cable multi-camera rates and she worked closely with her AD/UPM colleagues to improve economic and industry parity with network productions.
