Nominees Announced for DGA Awards

LOS ANGELES, January 11:
The Directors Guild of America (DGA) has announced the nominees for Outstanding
Directorial Achievement across feature film, documentary and television categories,
with the winners to be named on Saturday, January 26, at the Hyatt Regency
Century Plaza Hotel in Los Angeles.

In the comedy category, Michael Engler and Beth McCarthy-Miller of NBC’s 30
Rockwill
go head-to-head, nominated for the episodes “Rosemary’s Baby” and “Somebody to
Love,” respectively. The two will compete against fellow nominees David Nutter
of HBO’s Entourage for “The
Resurrection,” David Grossman of ABC’s Desperate Housewives for “Something’s Coming” and Barry Sonnenfeld of ABC’s Pushing
Daisies, nominated for “Pie-lette.”

Two directors
from HBO’s The Sopranos will compete against two directors from ABC’s Lost in the Dramatic Series Night category,
with David Chase and
Tim Van Patten up for The Sopranos’ episodes “Made in America” and “Sopranos Home Movies,”
respectively, and Lost’s Jack Bender and Eric Laneuville nominated for their respective
episodes “Through the Looking Glass” and “The Brig.” The category is rounded
out by Alan Taylor, who is grabbing his first DGA Award nomination, for the
pilot episode of ABC’s Mad Men, “When Smoke Gets in Your Eyes.”

Directors for
ABC’s and CBS’s daytime programming have been nominated in the Daytime Serials
category. From ABC, One Life To Live’s Larry Carpenter is nominated for his work on “Episode
#9947,” All My Children’s Casey Childs is up for “Episode #9669” and General Hospital’s Scott McKinsey grabs a nod for
“Episode #11228.” Over at CBS, Ellen Wheeler scores a nomination for Guiding
Light’s “Episode
#15221” and Christopher Goutman is recognized for As The World Turns’ “Episode #12971.”

The Disney
Channel leads the pack for nods in children’s programs, with Paul Hoen
nominated for Jump In, Fred Savage for Wizards of Waverly Place’s “The Crazy 10 Minute Sale,” and
Kenny Ortega, who won in the category in 2006 for High School Musical, will see if he can take home the
trophy with his nomination for High School Musical 2. Also competing in the category are
Judith Vogelsang for the PBS program Going Green—Every Home An
Eco-Home and Andy Wolk
for ABC Family’s Lincoln Heights, the episode “That Feeling That We Have.”

Directors
being recognized with nominations in the Documentaries category are Ken Burns
and Lynn Novick for The War, Alex Gibney for Taxi to the Dark Side, Asger Leth for Ghosts of Cite Soleil,
Richard E. Robbins for
Operation Homecoming: Writing the Wartime Experience and Barbet Schroeder for Terror’s
Advocate.

Outstanding
Directorial Achievement in Musical Variety nominees are Jerry Foley for show
#2773 of CBS’s Late Show with David Letterman, Louis J. Horvitz for ABC’s The 79th
Annual Academy Awards, Glenn
Weiss for CBS’s The 61st Annual Tony Awards and Jim Hoskinson for “Episode #3052”
of The Colbert Report and Chuck O’Neil for his work on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, both of which air on Comedy Central.

In the TV
movie/mini-series genre, Jon Avnet scores a nod for USA Network’s The
Starter Wife, Lloyd
Kramer is up for ABC’s Oprah Winfrey Presents Mitch Albom’s For One More Day
and Mikael Salomon has
been recognized for TNT’s The Company. ESPN’s The Bronx Is Burning director Jeremiah Chechik is also
nominated in the category, as is Yves Simoneau for HBO’s Bury My Heart At
Wounded Knee,
garnering his first DGA Award nomination.

In the feature
film category, nominees include director Paul Thomas Anderson for his work on
Paramount Vantage’s and Miramax Films’ There Will Be Blood; Joel Coen and Ethan Coen for No
Country For Old Men,
Tony Gilroy for Warner Bros.’s Michael Clayton; Sean Penn for Paramount Vantage’s Into
The Wild; and Julian
Schnabel for Miramax Films’ The Diving Bell and the Butterfly.

Michael
Apted, the president of the DGA, said in a statement: “We always have so
much to celebrate when we announce the DGA nominees for directorial achievement
in television (movies for television, dramatic series, comedy series, musical
variety, reality programs, daytime serials and children’s programs),
documentaries and commercials.” He continued: “Each genre requires unique
talent and vision, and our 45 nominees in these nine categories this year have
more than met the challenge with incredibly creative and compelling projects
that run the gamut from seconds to hours, from live events to years in the
making. I congratulate all of them on their fine work.”

—By
Kristin Brzoznowski