Los Angeles – The Directors Guild of America today announced that Director/Writer/Producer Nora Ephron, U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy (D-VT), IATSE International President Matthew Loeb and HBO Documentary Films President Sheila Nevins will be honored at the 2011 DGA Honors, to be held at the DGA Theater in New York City on Thursday, October 13, 2011. DGA Honors will also feature a special posthumous tribute to pioneering female filmmaker Alice Guy Blache.
DGA Honors celebrates individuals and institutions that have made distinguished contributions to American culture through the world of film and television and recognizes the diversity of achievement – in business, government, labor and higher education – required to produce the best entertainment in the world.
“2011 marks the 75th anniversary of the Directors Guild of America,” said DGA President Taylor Hackford. “In this anniversary year of celebrating our history and the people who have made an indelible mark on our community, DGA Honors provides a special moment to recognize a handful of people who have uniquely contributed to the betterment of our community by providing opportunity, safeguarding our livelihoods or using entertainment to open a window onto the human experience.”
“As the Guild’s most significant New York event, DGA Honors brings together our friends and colleagues in the entertainment community to acknowledge and honor both those who have made outstanding cultural contributions as well as those who have committed themselves to protecting or strengthening creative and economic rights in our industry,” said DGA National Vice President Steven Soderbergh.
Past DGA Honors recipients have included influential filmmakers Robert Altman, Jonathan Demme, Milos Forman, Curtis Hanson, Spike Lee, Mike Nichols, Arthur Penn, Sydney Pollack and Martin Scorsese, as well as leaders in entertainment, labor and politics such as Creator/Producer Dick Wolf; Robert De Niro;Saturday Night Live producer Lorne Michaels; Sopranos creator David Chase; Congressman John Conyers, Jr.; Jane Alexander; Mayor Michael Bloomberg; Senator Ted Kennedy; AFL-CIO president John Sweeney; and former IATSE President Tom Short.
The host and presenters for the 2011 DGA Honors will be announced later this summer. Past presenters and hosts have included Oprah Winfrey, Tom Cruise, Halle Berry, Julianne Moore, Jude Law, Richard Belzer, Dave Chappelle, Sam Waterston, Gwyneth Paltrow, Ellen DeGeneres, Matt Dillon, Hank Azaria and Francis Ford Coppola.
The 2011 DGA Honors will begin with red carpet arrivals at 6:00pm, followed by the event itself at 7:00pm and a VIP after-party at Nobu 57 at 8:30pm.
