In Contention

Tag: Taylor Hackford

  • Norman Jewison to receive career award from DGA

    Norman JewisonWow, what’s with all the big announcements today? Space yourselves out, folks.

    Anyway, this is one bit of news I’m very happy to pass on. 83 year-old filmmaker and producer Norman Jewison has been named the next recipient of the Directors Guild of America’s Lifetime Achievement Award. He will accept the honor at the DGA’s awards ceremony on 30 January.

    Jewison is the kind of artist for whom career achievement awards were invented — accomplished, versatile and hard-working across five decades in cinema, he’s rarely had the spotlight to himself. This despite having directed a Best Picture Oscar winner (“In the Heat of the Night,” 1967) and having amassed a career total of seven Oscar nods for such films as “Moonstruck,” “A Soldier’s Story,” “Fiddler on the Roof” and “The Russians Are Coming, The Russians Are Coming.”

    The Academy paid their respects to Jewison in 1999, with an Irving G. Thalberg Award, so the DGA (who have nominated him thrice themselves) is playing catch-up here. Nice to see. Press release excerpt after the cut.

    (more…)

  • 10/8 Oscarweb Round-up

    Michael Stuhlbarg in A Serious Man• Jamie Foxx wants “Ray” director Taylor Hackford to tackle the actor’s planned Mike Tyson biopic. [MTV Movies Blog]

    • Jeffrey M. Anderson talks to “A Serious Man” star Michael Stuhlbarg. [Green Cine Daily]

    • Patrick Goldstein wants to know why Michael Moore got dolled up for Sean Hannity. [The Big Picture]

    (more…)

  • Hackford takes over as DGA president

    Taylor Hackford Congratulations to Taylor Hackford, who was elected this weekend as president of the Directors Guild of America. He takes over from Michael Apted, who has held the position since 2003. Hackford ran unopposed after being nominated by Steven Soderbergh — who in turn retains his vice-president position. Here’s Hackford’s statement, via Variety:

    This Guild has worked for nearly three quarters of a century to advance the economic and creative rights of its members, always addressing new challenges with a firm and steady hand … I’m extraordinarily proud of what the DGA has accomplished, and I hope to continue that great legacy of leadership at the Guild.

    You’ll remember that Hackford (who is of course married to Helen Mirren) received his first Best Director Oscar nod for “Ray” in 2005, a quarter-century after actually winning a statuette in the short-film category. (Meanwhile, the Guild itself has shortlisted him twice, for “Ray” and “An Officer and a Gentleman.”) He has worked infrequently of late, though he currently has a few irons in the fire, notably directing his wife in “Love Ranch,” a true-life story of Nevada’s first legal brothel.

    (more…)