Last night, the Directors Guild of America selected the best directorial work in film and television from 2009, most notably awarding Kathryn Bigelow with Outstanding Directorial Achievement for Feature Film for her work on The Hurt Locker, becoming the first female to ever win the award. This is very good news for the Oscar prospects of the Hurt Locker, as well as very bad news for those of Avatar. The DGA feature film honoree has failed to line up with the Best Director Oscar winner a mere 6 times in the 61 year history of the awards, and has predicted the Best Picture Oscar winner 79% of the time. Earlier in the month, The Hurt Locker upset Avatar to win kudos from the Producers Guild, perhaps the guild most likely to favor the big budget wonder of Avatar. With both the producers and the directors on its side, The Hurt Locker just became the certain favorite for Best Picture come Oscar night. James Cameron and Avatar may just have to settle for their Golden Globes . . . and billions upon billions of dollars.
On the non-fiction side, Louie Psihoyos won Outstanding Directorial Achievement for his work on The Cove. Hit the jump for more on the night's winners.
The Cove, an exploration of the dolphin hunting industry, was recently the most successful of Youtube's experiments with the rental market as one of five Sundance movies on the video streaming site. Though at a miniscule 303 views, that doesn't amount to much. Likewise, The Cove never reached $1 million at the theatrical box office. Still, the doc has been earning its fair share of awards attention and may very well find love at the Oscars and eventual success on DVD.
In the world of television, AMC's Mad Men lended another female to the winners' circle in Lesli Linka Glatter, who directed last season's excellently titled "Guy Walks Into an Agency". Jason Winer won for helming the acclaimed pilot of ABC's Modern Family. HBO continued their dominance in made-for-TV movies, as Ross Katz won for Taking Chance. Notably, Christopher Goutman won for his work in daytime soap As the World Turns, some consolation after CBS cancelled the legendary program after a whopping 54 seasons.
Check out the full list of winners (including Princess Protection Program!) below.
Feature film: Kathryn Bigelow for The Hurt Locker (Summit Entertainment)
Documentary: Louie Psihoyos for The Cove (Oceanic Preservation Society
and Roadside Attractions)
TV drama series: Lesli Linka Glatter, Mad Men, "Guy Walks Into An Advertising Agency" (AMC)
TV movie: Ross Katz for Taking Chance (HBO)
TV comedy series: Jason Winer, Modern Family, "Pilot" (ABC)
Musical variety: Don Mischer, We Are One: The Obama Inaugural Celebration at the Lincoln Memorial (HBO)
Daytime serials: Christopher Goutman, As The World Turns (CBS)
Reality TV: Craig Borders, Build It Bigger Season 3: Hong Kong Bridge (Discovery Science)
Children's programming: Allison Liddi-Brown, Princess Protection Program (Disney Channel)
Commercials: Tom Kuntz of MJZ UK