Three Directors Guild of America awards for scripted TV series bestowed to female directors: discover the winners of the 67th Annual DGA Awards which took place on February 7, 2015.
“It’s been a good night for the gals.”
“It’s been a good night for the gals” said director Lesli Linka Glatter after receiving the DGA’s Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Dramatic Series for the Homeland episode “From A to B and Back Again“.
Female directors may have directed only 14% of all 2013-2014 network & cable scripted television series but they made it count, as the three top TV awards given on February 7 at the Directors Guild of America ceremony presented by Jane Lynch went to experienced filmmakers who happened to be women.
Nominated in 1984 for an Academy Award, Lesli Linka Glatter went on to become a prominent TV director, working on Steven Spielberg’s Amazing Stories, Twin Peaks and Mad Men among others until her current 9-episode stint with Homeland. This is her fifth DGA nomination after Twin Peaks in 1990 & Homeland in 2012/2013 and her second win as he received the prize in 2009 for Mad Men’s “Guy Walks into an Advertising Agency” season 3 episode.
It was, however, the first DGA Award nomination for Jill Soloway, Lisa Cholodenko & Laura Poitras.
Nominated for several WGA & Emmy Awards with the writing team of Six Feet Under, Jill Soloway is a newcomer to directing, as she directed her first feature Afternoon Delight (Sundance 2013 Directing Award) in 2013, after sixteen years in the rooms of Grey’s Anatomy, How to Make It in America and United States of Tara as a writer and showrunner.
Based on the transgender coming out of her father and greenlighted in 2013 by Amazon to kickstart its digital series offering, her pilot Transparent debuted online in February 2014 to critical acclaim and prompted the tech giant to order a full season of 10 episodes directed by Jill Soloway and Nisha Ganatra (Haven, PBS’s Cosmopolitan).
Premiering on September 26, 2014 with the rest of the series, the 8th episode Best New Girl written by Bridget Bedard (Men Of A Certain Age) and directed by Jill Soloway received the DGA Award for Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Comedy Series.
A fellow Six Feet Under alumna as she directed the fourth episode of the first season, Lisa Cholodenko started her career with her first feature High Art in 1998, winner of the Sundance Waldo Salt Screenwriting Award. Switching mediums regularly, she directed episodes of Homicide, Six Feet Under & L world between features prior to her Oscar-nominated third film The Kids Are All Right.
Written by Jane Anderson and directed by Cholodenko, the four episode of the HBO series Olive Kitteridge have received the DGA Award for Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Movies for Television and Mini-Series.
Winner of the Best Documentary at the 2015 BAFTAs, Laura Poitras’ NSA/Edward Snowden documentary Citizenfour co-produced by HBO was bestowed the DGA Award for Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Documentary.
This was not the only surprise of the night, as Steven Spielberg announced a brand new DGA Award presented at the 68th Annual DGA Awards in 2016: the First-Time Feature Film Director Award.
Just because you don’t win doesn’t mean you can’t make history: if the DGA Award Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Commercials has been given to Nikolai Fuglsig, it has only been the second time in the prize’s 25 years history to count female directors as nominees: Lauren Greenfield (DGA Documentary nomination for The Queen of Versailles in 2012 & Sundance winner) and Katina Mercadante, part of a creative duo with her husband.
More importantly, that makes Laura Greenfield the first solo female nominee in the commercial competition; her ad is none other than the #LikeAGirl social experiment by Always which turned into an empowering message and received an amazing public response since its June 2014 online premiere and 2015 Super Bowl broadcast.
Discover the event held in September 2014 by the Directors Guild of America to celebrate female directors on The DGA Women’s Steering Committee turns 35“I think what you see is when women get up to bat, they do pretty well.
That’s really exciting. Now, we have to bring more.
The women who are working have to grab the hand of the next generation.”
Lesli Linka Glatter – 2015 DGA Dramatic Series Award Winner
Follow the Directors Guild of America Steering Committees on the Diversity Directory
Find Jill Soloway on the Hollywomen Screenwriters Board
Follow Jill Soloway’s video network Wifey.TV on the Diversity Directory
Discover Jill Soloway’s Transparent on Transparence, Pills & Selfies – Trailers & Releases
Find Lisa Cholodenko on the Hollywomen Directors Board
Discover Citizenfour by Laura Poitras & Olive Kitteridge by Lisa Cholodenko on Hackers, Slashers & Angry Birds – Watch Trailers Of New Movie & TV Releases
Discover the full list of winners and their teams:
FEATURE FILM
ALEJANDRO G. INNÁRRITU
Birdman (Fox Searchlight Pictures)
Directorial Team:
Unit Production Managers: James W. Skotchdopole, Robert Graf
First Assistant Director: Peter Kohn
Second Assistant Director: Amy Lauritsen
Second Second Assistant Director: Catherine Feeny
Location Manager: Joaquin Prange
DRAMATIC SERIES
LESLI LINKA GLATTER
Homeland “From A to B and Back Again” (Showtime)
Directorial Team:
• Unit Production Managers: Angela Phillips, Michael Klick
• First Assistant Director: Nick Heckstall Smith
• Second Assistant Director: Wendy Bledsoe
• Episode written by Chip Johannessen
COMEDY SERIES
JILL SOLOWAY
Transparent, “Best New Girl” (Amazon Prime)
Directorial Team:
• Unit Production Manager: Victor Hsu
• First Assistant Director: Bill Purple
• Second Assistant Director: Allan Monteiro Fortes
MOVIES FOR TELEVISION AND MINI SERIES
LISA CHOLODENKO
Olive Kitteridge (HBO)
Directorial Team:
• Unit Production Manager: David Coatsworth
• First Assistant Director: Jesse Nye
• Second Assistant Director: Mark Constance
• Second Second Assistant Director: Elizabeth MacSwan
DOCUMENTARY
LAURA POITRAS
Citizenfour (Praxis Films, Participant Media, HBO Films)
VARIETY/TALK/NEWS/SPORTS – SPECIALS
GLENN WEISS
The 68th Annual Tony Awards (CBS)
Directorial Team:
• Associate Directors: Ken Diego, Robin Abrams, Stefani Cohen, Ricky Kirshner
• Stage Managers: Garry Hood, Phyllis Digilio-Kent, Peter Epstein, Andrew Feigin, Lynn Finkel, Doug Fogel, Jeffry Gitter, Arthur Lewis, Jeffrey M. Markowitz, Joey Meade, Seth Mellman, Cyndi Owgang, Jeff Pearl, Annette Powlis, Elise Reaves, Lauren Class Schneider
VARIETY/TALK/NEWS/SPORTS – REGULARLY SCHEDULED PROGRAMMING
DAVE DIOMEDI
The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon, “Episode #1″ (NBC)
Directorial Team:
• Associate Director: Maureen Smith
• Stage Managers: Nicka Tolmasoff, Mike Kilkenny
REALITY PROGRAMS
ANTHONY B. SACCO
The Chair, “The Test” (Starz)
CHILDREN’S PROGRAMS
JONATHAN JUDGE
100 Things To Do Before High School, “Pilot” (Nickelodeon)
Directorial Team:
• Unit Production Manager: Debra Spidell
• First Assistant Director: Julian Petrillo
• Second Assistant Director: Katey Wheelhouse
• Second Second Assistant Director: Ceci Mak
COMMERCIALS
NICOLAI FUGLSIG
Sapeurs, Guinness AMV BBDO
• First Assistant Director: Bob Wilkins
Waiting, FEMA Deutsch NY
• First Assistant Director: Bob Wagner
• Second Assistant Director: Rafa Sanz
