Directors Guild of America President Paris Barclay, president of the Directors Guild of America, has announced the five nominees for the DGA Award for Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Documentaries for 2013. Four of the filmmakers are first-time nominees; the other has landed her third career nomination and is a past DGA Award winner.
“The five documentary filmmakers nominated today have made powerful films exploring humanity in all its complications,” said Barclay. “From intricate family portrayals to lives caught in political upheaval, these works are intimate, heartbreaking and triumphant. My congratulations to each of the nominees.”
The winner will be named at the 66th Annual DGA Awards Dinner on Saturday, January 25, 2014 at the Hyatt Regency Century Plaza in Los Angeles. The nominees are (in alphabetical order):
Zachary Heinzerling
Cutie and the Boxer
Radius TWC
Ex Lion Tamer
Cine Mosaic
This is Mr. Heinzerling’s first DGA Award nomination.
Jehane Noujaim
The Square
Netflix
Participant Media
Noujaim Films
Maktube Productions
WorldView
Roast Beef Productions
This is Ms. Noujaim’s third DGA Award nomination. She won the DGA Award for Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Documentary for Startup.com in 2001 (together with Chris Hegedus) and was also nominated in this category in 2004 for Control Room.
Joshua Oppenheimer
The Act of Killing
Final Cut for Real APS
Drafthouse Films
Piraya Films
Novaya Zemlya Ltd.
Spring Films Ltd.
This is Mr. Oppenheimer’s first DGA Award nomination.
Sarah Polley
Stories We Tell
Roadside Attractions
The National Film Board of Canada
This is Ms. Polley’s first DGA Award nomination.
Lucy Walker
The Crash Reel
HBO Documentary Films
KP Rides Again, LLC
Impact Partners
Tree Tree Tree Production
This is Ms. Walker’s first DGA Award nomination.
Rom-Com Mainstay Hugh Grant Shifts To The Dark Side and He’s Never Been Happier
After some difficulties connecting to a Zoom, Hugh Grant eventually opts to just phone instead.
"Sorry about that," he apologizes. "Tech hell." Grant is no lover of technology. Smart phones, for example, he calls the "devil's tinderbox."
"I think they're killing us. I hate them," he says. "I go on long holidays from them, three or four days at at time. Marvelous."
Hell, and our proximity to it, is a not unrelated topic to Grant's new film, "Heretic." In it, two young Mormon missionaries (Chloe East, Sophie Thatcher) come knocking on a door they'll soon regret visiting. They're welcomed in by Mr. Reed (Grant), an initially charming man who tests their faith in theological debate, and then, in much worse things.
After decades in romantic comedies, Grant has spent the last few years playing narcissists, weirdos and murders, often to the greatest acclaim of his career. But in "Heretic," a horror thriller from A24, Grant's turn to the dark side reaches a new extreme. The actor who once charmingly stammered in "Four Weddings and a Funeral" and who danced to the Pointer Sisters in "Love Actually" is now doing heinous things to young people in a basement.
"It was a challenge," Grant says. "I think human beings need challenges. It makes your beer taste better in the evening if you've climbed a mountain. He was just so wonderfully (expletive)-up."
"Heretic," which opens in theaters Friday, is directed by Scott Beck and Bryan Woods, co-writers of "A Quiet Place." In Grant's hands, Mr. Reed is a divinely good baddie — a scholarly creep whose wry monologues pull from a wide range of references, including, fittingly, Radiohead's "Creep."
In an interview, Grant spoke about these and other facets of his character, his journey... Read More