Three first-time nominees and two earning their second career nominations comprise the field of directors vying for the DGA Award for Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Feature Film for 2009.
Those in their second go-around in the DGA Award competition are: James Cameron, whose latest nomination is for Avatar (Twentieth Century Fox); and Quentin Tarantino who is nominated for Inglourious Basterds (The Weinstein Company and Universal Pictures).
Cameron was first nominated–and won the DGA Award–for Titanic in 1997. Tarantino’s initial nomination came on the strength of Pulp Fiction in ’94.
The trio of first-time director nominees in the feature category this year are: Kathryn Bigelow for The Hurt Locker (Summit Entertainment); Lee Daniels for Precious: Based on the Novel ‘Push’ by Sapphire (Lionsgate); and Jason Reitman for Up In The Air (Paramount Pictures).
Bigelow and Reitman share another common bond. They are both on the rosters of commercial production houses. Bigelow signed last year with RSA Films for spots. Reitman’s long-time roost for commercials is Tate USA.
The winner in the feature category will be named at the 62nd annual DGA Awards Dinner on Saturday, January 30, at the Hyatt Regency Century Plaza Hotel in Los Angeles
The DGA Award for Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Feature Film has traditionally been one of the industry’s most accurate barometers for who will win the Best Director Academy Award. Only six times since the DGA Awards began in 1948 has the feature film winner not gone on to win the corresponding Academy Award. Those six exceptions to the rule were:
• Director Anthony Harvey won the DGA Award for The Lion in Winter in ’68 while Carol Reed took home the Oscar® for Oliver!
• Francis Ford Coppola received the DGA honor for The Godfather in ’72 while the Academy selected Bob Fosse for Cabaret.
• Steven Spielberg received his first DGA Award for The Color Purple in ’85 while the Oscar® went to Sydney Pollack for Out of Africa.
• Ron Howard was chosen by the DGA for his direction of Apollo 13 in ’95 while Academy voters selected Mel Gibson for Braveheart.
• And Ang Lee won the DGA Award for his direction of Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon in 2000 while Steven Soderbergh won the Academy Award for Traffic.
Walmart’s DEI rollback Signals A Shift In The Wake of Trump’s Election Victory. Will Other Advertisers Follow Suit?
Walmart's sweeping rollback of its diversity policies is the strongest indication yet of a profound shift taking hold at U.S. companies that are re-evaluating the legal and political risks associated with bold programs to bolster historically underrepresented groups.
The changes announced by the world's biggest retailer on Monday followed a string of legal victories by conservative groups that have filed an onslaught of lawsuits challenging corporate and federal programs aimed at elevating minority and women-owned businesses and employees.
The retreat from such programs crystalized with the election of former President Donald Trump, whose administration is certain to make dismantling diversity, equity and inclusion programs a priority. Trump's incoming deputy chief of policy will be his former adviser Stephen Miller, who leads a group called America First Legal that has aggressively challenged corporate DEI policies.
"There has been a lot of reassessment of risk looking at programs that could be deemed to constitute reverse discrimination," said Allan Schweyer, principal researcher at the Human Capital Center at the Conference Board.
"This is another domino to fall and it is a rather large domino," he added.
Among other changes, Walmart said it will no longer give priority treatment to suppliers owned by women or minorities. The company also will not renew a five-year commitment for a racial equity center set up in 2020 after the police killing of George Floyd. And it pulled out of a prominent gay rights index.
Schweyer said the biggest trigger for companies making such changes is simply a reassessment of their legal risk exposure, which began after U.S. Supreme Court's ruling in June 2023 that ended affirmative action in... Read More