From: Variety.com
Posted: Sat., Jan. 28, 2006, 10:56pm PT

DGA fetes Lee for 'Brokeback'
Helmer nabs second guild award

By DAVE MCNARY

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Ang Lee has roped in the Directors Guild of America top feature film award for helming Focus Features’ cowboy romance “Brokeback Mountain.”
It's the second DGA trophy for the Taiwanese native, who was honored five years ago for "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon."

Lee won over George Clooney for Warner Independent's "Good Night, and Good Luck," Paul Haggis for Lionsgate's "Crash," Bennett Miller for United Artists/Sony Classics' "Capote" and Steven Spielberg for Universal's "Munich."

The award, based on voting by the 12,800 DGA members, was presented by director Ron Howard. The victory wasn't a surprise, given recent support for "Brokeback" including the Producers Guild Award and four Golden Globes, including best drama and director.

In a brief acceptance speech, Lee noted that he had presented Howard with the award in 2002 for "A Beautiful Mind," then added,

"This is the only award I put on my desk."

Winning the DGA award makes Lee a front-runner for the Best Picture Oscar. The DGA winner and the Oscar winner have matched in 51 of the last 57 years, including last year when Clint Eastwood won both trophies for "Million Dollar Baby."

The DGA last diverged from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences in 2003, when it selected Rob Marshall for "Chicago" and the Oscar went to Roman Polanski for "The Pianist," and in 2001, when Lee won the DGA award and Steven Soderbergh took the Oscar for "Traffic."

"Brokeback" lead actors Jake Gyllenhaal and Heath Ledger, in presenting a nomination plaque to Lee, told the audience that the director had been crucial in their performances. "Ang Lee is fierce in his timidity, his timidity and his respect for everyone around him," Gyllenhaal said.

"He helped us find the breath of the voice of the soul and once we had that, provided us with an incredible environment to breathe and believe," Ledger said.

Lee became the 11th director to have won the DGA Award twice. Spielberg's the only three-time winner.

"I think we're all winners because we're blessed," Lee said before winning the award. "We make movies together and we celebrate together. What a life."

Werner Herzog won the documentary film category for Lionsgate's "Grizzly Man," assembled from the recovered films of Timothy Treadwell's decade of living among the bears in Alaska. "Half this award belongs to him," Herzog said of Treadwell, who was killed by a bear in 2003.

In TV awards, DGA president Michael Apted won the trophy in drama series for HBO's "Rome" and Michael Buckland won in comedy series for the pilot of NBC's "My Name Is Earl."

The TV movie category produced a tie between Joseph Sargent for HBO's "Warm Springs" and George C. Woolfe for HBO's "Lackawanna Blues." Sargent won the telepic category last year for "Something the Lord Made."

The new reality television category generated a tie between Tony Croll for ABC's "Three Wishes," and J. Rupert Thompson for NBC's "Fear Factor."

Owen Renfroe won in daytime serials for ABC's "General Hospital;" Chris Eyre took the children's programs prize for Showtime's "Edge of America;" and Matthew Diamond won in musical variety for PBS's "Swan Lake with American Ballet Theater." and Craig Gillespie took the commercials trophy.

Clint Eastwood was presented the lifetime achievement award and asserted that he hopes the kudo is a "midlife achievement awrad."

Carl Reiner emceed for the 20th year and said at the end of the evening, "I hope you ask me back and I hope I'm around."



(Thanks Mary D, of our affiliate AUXIP for the link.)