Directors Guild Award Shocker: Tom Hooper Wins For The King's Speech

And just like that, we've got a new front-runner. After previously notching an unexpected win at the Producers Guild Award, The King's Speech continued on its guild rampage, with first-time nominee Tom Hooper winning Best Feature Film Director last night, leaving previous favorite David Fincher with nothing. And as you will hear ad nauseum today, only six times in the past has the DGA Award winner not won the Academy Award for Best Director, most recently in 2002 when Rob Marshall won for Chicago, but Roman Polanski went on to win the Oscar for The Pianist. Will The King's Speech make it a guild hat trick and win big tonight at the Screen Actors Guild Awards? Full list of winners after the break. [Deadline]

Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Feature Film

Tom Hooper, The King's Speech

Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Documentary

Charles Ferguson, Inside Job

Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Movies for Television and Mini-Series

Mick Jackson, Temple Grandin (HBO)

Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Dramatic Series

Martin Scorsese, Boardwalk Empire, "Boardwalk Empire" (HBO)

Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Comedy Series

Michael Spiller, Modern Family, "Halloween" (ABC)

Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Musical Variety

Glenn Weiss, 64th Annual Tony Awards (CBS)

Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Reality Programs

Eytan Keller, The Next Iron Chef, "Episode #301" (Food Network)

Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Daytime Serials

Larry Carpenter, One Life to Live, "Episode #10,687" (ABC)

Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Children's Programs

Eric Bross, The Boy Who Cried Werewolf (Nickelodeon)

Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Commercials

Stacy Wall, Imperial Woodpecker, Nike



Comments

  • zooeyglass1999 says:

    I am kind of shocked. I liked The King's Speech, it was a good film but not a GREAT one. The acting was great, the script was good, but the directing really was nothing very impressive. It was very BBC. Hooper would have been my 5th choice out of the other DGA nominees. Is there some sort of industry backlash against The Social Network's leading dominance?

  • S.T. VanAirsdale says:

    Is there some sort of industry backlash against The Social Network's leading dominance?
    Maybe, maybe not, but let's face it: Hooper is a TV director, both by practice and reputation. And TV directors make up the majority of DGA membership. I never would have predicted a Hooper win, but it's not _totally_ out of left field or anything.

  • zooeyglass1999 says:

    That is right! I forgot that Hooper also won the DGA before in the tv category for John Adams.

  • topsyturvy says:

    And of course there is nothing about TSN that smells of TV movie. It is the greatest movie ever made, besting RAGING BULL, CITIZEN KANE and VERTIGO. Any movie that dares take one Oscar from it deserves to be trashed.

  • The Cantankerist says:

    I'm actually more shocked about Scorsese winning. I thought the pilot of Boardwalk was pretty average, actually, and the "flourishes" in it were the same old anachronistic techniques we've seen him use dozens of times before. Iris work? How quirky! Montage of people in gruesome circumstances with song over? Fresh! Devices that call attention to themselves rather than serving the narrative. And that's the best TV direction? Better than "The Suitcase" on Mad Men? "Half Measures" on Breaking Bad? Seems like a retrograde "oh my God Mr S we're so honored that a big-time MOVIE director like you HUMBLED himself by working on TELEVISION" - when Scorsese's last five films taken together are less memorable than the work top-notch television series are now doing. End of rant.