Director's and Art Dirctor's Guild Awards

The big story coming out of the Director's Guild of America awards, Saturday night in Hollywood was Ben Affleck becoming only the third person in history to win the DGA but not get an Oscar nomination. When the Oscar nominations were announced last month I noted the curious fact that three directors of films considered to be contenders for the Best Picture Oscar did not receive Oscar nominations for their directors despite the fact that those directors had received DGA nominations. Ben Affleck was one of them.

Nonetheless, give all that has happened, including this DGA win for Affleck bodes well for Argo to be named Best Picture at the Oscars in a couple of weeks - the first since Driving Miss Daisy won Best Picture in 1990 without a director nomination (Bruce Beresford).

Malik Bedjelloul won for the documentary Searching For Sugarman. This picture too is getting a lot of awards and buzz.

Lena Dunham won for the television comedy series Girls, Rian Johnson won for the television drama series Breaking Bad, and Jay Roach won for the HBO movie Game Change.

The Art Director's Guild also had their awards ceremony Saturday night. I know because they were at the Beverly Hilton, where I was staying the same night for the SAG-AFTRA National Board meeting. Lot's of Tuxedos and other formal wear in the bar.

In case you are interested, here are the winners for Excellence in Production Design:

Period Film - Anna Karenina, Sarah Greenwood, Production Designer

Fantasy Film - Life of Pi, David Gropman Production Designer

Contemporary Film - Skyfall, Dennis Gassner Production Designer