Kathryn Bigelow [AP photo above], ex-wife of director James Cameron, won the Director's Guild of America's best director award for The Hurt Locker. The winner has won the Academy Award all but six times since 1948. Bigelow is the first woman to win the award. Previously, only Lena Wertmuller (Seven Beauties) and Barbra Streisand (The Prince of Tides) have been female Oscar® nominees for directing.
Louie Psychohos won for documentary directing for The Cove. Ross Katz won the award for tv miniseries or movie for Taking Chance.
Here is the official site for the Directors Guild of America
The six exceptions of DGA winners not winning the Academy Award are:
- 1968: Anthony Harvey won the DGA Award for The Lion in Winter while Carol Reed took home the Oscar® for Oliver!
- 1972: Francis Ford Coppola received the DGA's nod for The Godfather while the Academy selected Bob Fosse for Cabaret.
- 1985: Steven Spielberg received his first DGA Award for The Color Purple while the Oscar® went to Sydney Pollack for Out of Africa.
- 1995: Ron Howard was chosen by the DGA for his direction of Apollo 13 while Academy voters selected Mel Gibson for Braveheart.
- 2000: Ang Lee won the DGA Award for his direction of Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon while Steven Soderbergh won the Academy Award for Traffic.
- 2002: Rob Marshall won the DGA Award for Chicago at the 55th Annual DGA Awards while Roman Polanski received the Academy Award for The Pianist.
