USA: "AMERICAN BEAUTY" FILM DIRECTOR SAM MENDES GET DIRECTORS GUILD OF AMERICA SCREEN AWARD FOR THE BEST MOVIE

Record ID: 389393

  • Title: USA: "AMERICAN BEAUTY" FILM DIRECTOR SAM MENDES GET DIRECTORS GUILD OF AMERICA SCREEN AWARD FOR THE BEST MOVIE
  • Date: 11th March 2000
  • Summary: LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA, UNITED STATES (MARCH 11, 2000) (REUTERS - ACCESS ALL) ( ** BEWARE FLASH PHOTOGRAPHY **) SPIELBERG HOLDING AWARD AND POSING FOR PHOTOGRAPHERS WITH COPPOLA
  • Embargoed: 26th March 2000 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: LOS ANGELES, US
  • Country: USA
  • Topics: Entertainment
  • Reuters ID: LVA4Z2WX7KU6ACM0VPJCH7ZG9ZGM
  • Story Text: "American Beauty," a satiric tale of a suburban family run amok, became the favorite in Hollywood's Oscars sweepstakes on Saturday (March 11) when its director -- British novice Sam Mendes -- was named the year's best director by the prestigious Director's Guild of America.
    Further proof of the growing consensus of the film's dominance during the season of giving in Hollywood was its sweep of the SAG Awards the next night.
    With the Oscars set for March 26 and with voting for them still going on, Mendes won the DGA's "Outstanding Directorial Achievement in a Feature Film" award, beating many of the same men and pictures he is competing with for the Academy Awards.
    Although the DGA does not give a best picture award, only four DGA winners have failed to go on to win Oscars for best director and best picture since the directors' group began giving its prize in 1949.
    A strong showing in the SAG awards should bolster the chances of "American Beauty" in its tight best picture race with "The Insider," "The Sixth Sense," "The Green Mile" and "The Cider House Rules," which is being promoted with a heavy advertising campaign by its studio, Miramax Pictures, which did the same thing for last year's surprise Oscar winner, "Shakespeare in Love."
    Mendes appeared stunned at his Director's Guild victory.
    The award, which in past years has gone to some of the most famous names in Hollywood, including Spielberg, Billy Wilder and Robert Wise, went this year to a British theatre director working on his first film.
    "A year ago I was not even a member of the DGA, although I am now," he told a black tie audience at the guild's awards.
    Steven Spielberg received the DGA's highest honour -- a lifetime achievement award for which he received a standing ovation lasting several minutes.Carl Reiner, the evening's master of ceremonies, said he had not seen such a heartfelt tribute.
    Until this year, the lifetime achievement award was named after D.W.Griffith, one of the founding fathers of American cinema whose classic work, "Birth of a Nation," depicted blacks as villains and the Ku Klux Klan as heroes.
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