The 65th annual Directors Guild of America Awards ceremony saw Ben Affleck continue his streak of taking home prizes for Argo. The 40-year-old actor turned director won the DGA Award for Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Feature Films at the awards dinner, which was held Saturday night at the Ray Dolby Ballroom at Hollywood & Highland.
“I don’t think this makes ma a real director, but I think it means I’m on my way,” he said as he accepted the honor.
In the process, a new awards season statistic was created. The DGA Award usually points the way to the best director Oscar winner, since on only six occasions since the DGA Awards began in 1948 has the DGA winner failed to become the Academy’s best director winner. But that number now goes to seven, since Affleck isn’t nominated for a directing Oscar.
Argo is nominated for seven Academy Awards, though, and now becomes the odds-on favorite since in recent weeks its won two Globes, two Critics Choice Awards, the PGA Award and the SAG ensemble award.
In addition to Affleck, this year’s nominees for film were Kathryn Bigelow, nominated for Zero Dark Thirty; Tom Hooper, Les Miserables; Ang Lee, Life of Pi; and Steven Spielberg, Lincoln.
As is the tradition at the DGA Awards, each of the feature film nominees were invited on stage during the course of the evening to accept a medallion.
The complete list of nominees are below, with winners in red and offset by an asterisk.
FEATURE FILM *WINNER BEN AFFLECKArgo
(Warner Bros. Pictures) KATHRYN BIGELOW
Zero Dark Thirty
(Columbia Pictures) TOM HOOPER
Les Miserables
(Universal Pictures) ANG LEE
Life of Pi
(20th Century Fox) STEVEN SPIELBERG
Lincoln
(DreamWorks Pictures/Twentieth Century Fox) DOCUMENTARY FILM KIRBY DICK
The Invisible War *WINNER MALIK BENDJELLOUL
Searching For Sugar Man LAUREN GREENFIELD
The Queen of Versailles DAVID FRANCE
How To Survive A Plague ALISON KLAYMAN
Ai WeiWei: Never Sorry MOVIES FOR TELEVISION AND MINI-SERIES GREG BERLANTI
Political Animals, “Pilot”
(USA Network) PHILIP KAUFMAN
Hemingway & Gellhorn
(HBO) KEVIN REYNOLDS
Hatfields & McCoys
(History)
*WINNER JAY ROACH
Game Change
(HBO) MICHAEL RYMER
American Horror Story: Asylum, “Dark Cousin”
(FX) DRAMATIC SERIES MICHAEL CUESTA
Homeland, “The Choice”
(Showtime) JENNIFER GETZINGER
Mad Men, “A Little Kiss”
(AMC) LESLI LINKA GLATTER
Homeland, “Q & A”
(Showtime) *WINNER RIAN JOHNSON
Breaking Bad, “Fifty-One”
(AMC) GREG MOTTOLA
The Newsroom, “We Just Decided To”
(HBO) COMEDY SERIES LOUIS C.K.
Louie, “New Year’s Eve”
(FX) MARK CENDROWSKI
The Big Bang Theory, “The Date Night Variable”
(CBS) BRYAN CRANSTON
Modern Family, “Election Day”
(ABC) *WINNER LENA DUNHAM
Girls, “Pilot”
(HBO) BETH MCCARTHY-MILLER
30 Rock, “Live from Studio 6H”
(NBC)
The Artsy Film Blog 