DGA press release:
Directors Guild of America President Taylor Hackford today announced that Norman Jewison will receive the Guild’s top honor, the Lifetime Achievement Award for Distinguished Achievement in Motion Picture Direction, at the 62nd Annual DGA Awards on January 30, 2010.
“We are truly honored to present the Lifetime Achievement Award for feature film to Norman Jewison, a legend in this industry. He is an incredible filmmaker whose calm, affable manner belies a ferocious creative fire within,” said Hackford. “There are very few filmmakers whose body of work moves so fluidly between romantic comedy and political thriller, musical and satire, with an ease and an eloquence that few could hope to match. Norman well deserves to stand among the giants of cinema whom we have honored in the past.”
The DGA Lifetime Achievement Award winner is selected by the present and past presidents of the Guild. In the Guild’s 73-year history, only 32 directors have been recognized with the honor, including Cecil B. DeMille (1953), Frank Capra (1959), Alfred Hitchcock (1968), Orson Welles (1984), Billy Wilder (1985), Akira Kurosawa (1992), Stanley Kubrick (1997), Francis Ford Coppola (1998), Steven Spielberg (2000), Martin Scorsese (2003), and most recently, Clint Eastwood (2006).
Norman Jewison has been a vibrant force in the motion picture industry for four decades. Nominated for three DGA Awards, the filmmaker has been personally nominated for four Oscars; his films have received 46 nominations and 12 Academy Awards. He has also been nominated for three Best Director Awards. In 1999, Jewison received the prestigious Irving Thalberg Award at the Academy Awards…
His film debut as a director came with the 1962 comedy 40 Pounds of Trouble, followed quickly by several more romantic comedies. With The Cincinnati Kid, Jewison broke out of the romantic comedy genre as he began exploring a wide range of styles as well as the complex social issues such as racism and corruption that would characterize a number of his films throughout the coming years. 1966’s The Russians are Coming, the Russians are Coming, garnered Jewison his first DGA nomination. The following year’s In the Heat of the Night brought another DGA nomination and won five Academy Awards including Best Picture in 1967. A Soldier’s Story brought his third DGA nomination; additional Academy Award nominations for Best Director followed for Fiddler on the Roof and Moonstruck.
12 Responses for "Norman Jewison to receive DGA Lifetime Achievement Award"
A great choice, he has given us plenty of classics.
I wouldn’t go that far. He’s been solid for a long time and he has a lot of range. But he’s nowhere near the level of any of the previous winners. They would have been better off honoring Woody Allen or Sidney Lumet, both far more deserving.
Agnes of God…..Need I say more?
“Agnes of God…..Need I say more?”
Yes….Moonstruck
Interesting fact about NJ: he is NOT jewish
THANK GOD. Why he never got one I’ll never know. His years were always stiff competition.
Nowhwere near the levels as the others ? He’s long over due. And you could take a couple of names out where Norman and Sidney’s names should be.
This is a man that has given you such a wide variety of subject matter… The Statement, Agnes Of God, Moonstruck, And Justice For All, The Russians Are Coming, In The Heat Of The Night, Fiddler On The Roof, The Thomas Crown Affair, The Cincinnati Kid, A Soldier’s Story, Send Me No Flowers, and underrated fare like F.I.S.T, Best Friends, Rollerball and Other People’s Money.
The Woodman is good but I don’t think he has ventured into such diverse territory as Jewison.
The majority of Jewison’s movies haven’t really aged well, but it’s nice to see them reward a guy now who will probably be all but forgotten 20 years from now.
Also I have to say, for a guy in his 80s, Jewison looks great.
“They would have been better off honoring Woody Allen or Sidney Lumet, both far more deserving.”
Oh dear. You are over a decade too late with both picks. DGA already honored Allen and Lumet in the 90s.
In any case, there is no doubt in my mind that Jewison is completely deserving of the honor. Not only is he genuinly one of the nicest and most honorable people in Hollywood’s hostory he is also a terrific director as well. Anyone who says otherwise hasn’t seen much from his filmography.
This is MY favorite movie award of the year so far by far. Major props and congratulations to a great guy!
“Oh dear. You are over a decade too late with both picks. DGA already honored Allen and Lumet in the 90s.”
My bad for reading the list of previous honorees and not realizing that isn’t the whole list.
“Anyone who says otherwise hasn’t seen much from his filmography.”
I’ve seen 17 of his films:
Thrill of It All
Cincinatti Kid, The
Russians are Coming, Russians are Coming, The
In the Heat of the Night
Thomas Crown Affair, The
Fiddler on the Roof, The
Jesus Christ Superstar
Rollerball
And Justice for All
Best Friends
Soldier’s Story, A
Agnes of God
Moonstruck
In Country
Other People’s Money
Hurricane
Statement, The
and I don’t rank him in my top 150 of all-time, let alone my top 100 (http://nighthawknews.wordpress.com/2009/10/21/the-100-greatest-directors-of-all-time-the-complete-list/).
I have no doubt he is a nice and honorable person, probably much nicer and certainly more honorable than many great directors (Allen, Polanski, Coppola come to mind), but I still don’t really think he deserves this accolade.
Fair enough, Erik and while I disagree, I see that you are an opinionated guy who also seen a lot. I would also like to note that there is a danger in putting everything inside lists like you seem to do and then relying on them for justification.
Don’t get me wrong, I enjoy lists too but I find that sometimes they get in the way of my enjoyment of the movies themselves.
I also disagree with you implying that Allen and Coppola are dishonorable but that’s another story.
One pet peeve though, while going through you list I’ve noticed that you called ‘1941′ a commercial disaster. This is a popular misconception and is due to the fact that it earned significantly less than Jaws, CE3K and Raiders. In reality, the movie made $92.5 million worldwide on a $30 million dollar budget (this is close to $300 million) in today’s money. Add in post theatrical grosses and not only was a movie was a disaster it was also profitable. So please don’t confuse “disappointment” and “disaster”.
To put things in perspective, since you like Scorsese so much, “1941″ movie was more successful financially speaking than “Gangs of New York” or even “Departed”.
Oh we Oscar watchers are an obsessive compulsive lot, aren’t we?
Are they going to honor his greatest achievement the totally fact-based and unbiased The Hurricane?
Leave a reply
All comments should respect the Awards Daily House Rules. If you think a particular comment breaks these rules then please let us know, quoting the comment in question.