'The Artist' wins big at the Directors Guild Awards

The Directors Guild of America announced its annual awards tonight at a ceremony in the Grand Ballroom above the Kodak Theatre in Hollywood. The Artist‘s Michel Hazanavicius took home the prize for Outstanding Directorial Achievement in a Feature Film. Fellow nominees Martin Scorsese (Hugo) and Alexander Payne (The Descendants) also spoke at the event while accepting their nomination medallions. As is his custom for awards events, nominee Woody Allen (Midnight in Paris) was not present; nominee David Fincher (The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo) had to fly to the premiere of his film in Tokyo, Japan, although he did attend the nominee breakfast Saturday morning.

Hosted by Kelsey Grammer, the evening also feted directors for feature documentaries, and TV dramas, comedies, reality shows, made-for-TV movies and miniseries, soap operas, children’s programming, and commercials.

Since 1948, the DGA Award winner for feature film has gone on to win the Academy Award for Best Director every year save for six exceptions, most recently when Rob Marshall took home the DGA Award for Chicago in 2002, while Roman Polanski won the Oscar for The Pianist.

Check out the full list of winners below:

Best Director for a Feature Film

Michel Hazanavicius, The Artist

Feature Documentary

James Marsh, Project Nim

Drama Series

Patty Jenkins, The Killing, “Pilot” (AMC)

Comedy Series

Robert B. Weide, Curb Your Enthusiasm, “Palestinian Chicken” (HBO)

Movies for Television and Miniseries

Jon Cassar, The Kennedys (Reelz Channel)

Reality Series

Neil P. Degroot, The Biggest Loser, “Episode #1115” (NBC)

Musical/Variety Series

Glenn Weiss, 65th Annual Tony Awards (CBS)

Daytime Serials

William Ludel, General Hospital, “Intervention” (ABC)

Children’s Programs

Amy Schatz, A Child’s Garden of Poetry (HBO)

Commericals

Noam Murro, Ads for Heineken Premium Light, DirecTV, Volkswagen Tiguan, and EA Battlefield 3

Check back here on EW.com tomorrow for my full on-the-scene report of the event.

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