She WON!!!

I really hope this doesn't somehow jinx Bigelow or the film's Oscar chances (DGA winners don't have the best track record as far as matching Best Picture winners). If the Academy follows through, (besides the assured nominations) not only will it be a huge triumph for Bigelow herself, but for women directors everywhere. A lot of people complain that Sofia Coppola should have been the first woman to win (for Lost in Translation), but to me Bigelow's film is on such a different level, and would so wholly deserve to be given the label of "best motion picture of 2009", that for her to possibly double the honor by becoming the first female best director winner would only make the victory sweeter (that, and I've never found Lost in Translation to be anything more than "good"). Congratulations to Ms. Bigelow and her extraordinary film, as well as the other DGA winners (it's about time ABC's hilarious "Modern Family" won something).

Source: Reuters/Yahoo Movies

LOS ANGELES - Kathryn Bigelow and "The Hurt Locker" became official awards-season front-runners Saturday after Bigelow won the top prize from the Directors Guild of America.

The 58-year-old filmmaker is the first woman to win the guild's top honor, which positions her and the film as shoe-ins for the Academy Awards. The DGA boasts that its winner has gone on to win the Oscar all but six times since 1948.

"This is the most incredible moment of my life," Bigelow said backstage. She downplayed her gender, saying, "I suppose I like to think of myself as a filmmaker."

Still, she was the only nominated director who earned accolades for her physique as well as her filmmaking. Bigelow was up against Quentin Tarantino for "Inglourious Basterds," Jason Reitman for "Up in the Air," Lee Daniels for "Precious" and her ex-husband James Cameron for "Avatar."

"Hurt Locker" star Jeremy Renner called Bigelow "a warrior, my champion and the most fortunate actor's director."

Tarantino praised her as "queen of directors." He said his fellow nominees have been spending so much time together, they have become "like a superstar rock band and we're going to go on tour together."

Clutching a shiny medallion as a souvenir of his DGA nomination, Tarantino said, "I don't give a (expletive) who wins, I am so happy to have this."

Daniels said the nominated directors, who have seen each other regularly throughout Hollywood's awards season, are "like a support group" for one another.

"We have each other's backs," he said.

He told Bigelow, "You are bold. You are brave. You are gutsy."

Reitman told the winning director that he grew up watching her films.

"You are more than a great director, you are one of the greats," he said. "I'm in awe of you, too."

Cameron praised his competitors as "truly excellent and brilliant filmmakers."

Bigelow said just being nominated for the Directors Guild honor is "kind of the pinnacle for the already wild ride 'The Hurt Locker' has put me on."

The four-hour affair at the Hyatt Regency Century Plaza hotel drew a spate of celebrities, including Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt, Jodie Foster, Jon Cryer, Cheryl Hines and Jason Bateman. All but Jolie served as presenters during Saturday's ceremony.

Carl Reiner hosted the event recognizing achievements in directing, as he has for 22 years.

"Modern Family" won the top honor for television comedy for its pilot, directed by Jason Winer.

"I want to thank the DGA for validating the Napoleon complex I've had ever since I was a smaller boy," the diminutive director said.

The drama prize went to "Mad Men" and director Lesli Linka Glatter. Ross Katz was honored for the HBO movie "Taking Chance." Louie Psihoyos' film "The Cove" won the documentary award.

"The film plays like a prequel to 'Avatar,' only it's real and set in the present," Psihoyos said.

Cher presented Norman Jewison with the guild's Lifetime Achievement Award for his career in film.

"The studio heads maybe have all the power, but we've got the glory," he said. "And when you receive the lifetime achievement award like this, it makes you very nervous, like maybe you're going to fall off the perch or something."

The 83-year-old filmmaker accepted the award surrounded by his family, including his four grandchildren.

Cher said she would have gone to the moon to present Jewison with the honor.

"He has changed my life," said Cher, who starred in "Moonstruck," Jewison's 1987 hit. "I love him so much."

Roger Goodman was presented the guild's lifetime achievement award in news direction. Disney chief Robert Iger and Warner Bros. chief Barry Meyer were granted honorary life memberships in the guild.

Among other guild winners:

• Reality programming: Craig Borders, "Hong Kong Bridge."

• Children's programs: Allison Liddi-Brown, "Princess Protection Program."

• Daytime serials: Christopher Goutman, "As the World Turns: Once Upon a Time."

• Commercials: Tom Kuntz.

Among Hollywood's many honors leading up to the Academy Awards, the Directors Guild prizes have one of the best track records for predicting eventual Oscar winners.

Academy Award nominations will be announced Tuesday.

___

On the Net:

http://www.dga.org

"The Hurt Locker" wins the Producers Guild of America Award!!!

The 09-010 Best Picture race has become even more interesting. With Up in the Air surprisingly fading as a BP front runner, we're now faced with three likely candidates, each of them wildly different from each other: James Cameron's sci-fi spectacle Avatar (Golden Globe - Best Drama), Tarantino's WWII spaghetti western Inglourious Basterds (SAG Award - Best Ensemble Cast), and Kathryn Bigelow's gritty bomb-squad thriller.

Source: AP

LOS ANGELES - "The Hurt Locker" scored the top film award from the Producers Guild of America, building new momentum for the Iraq war drama in the expanded Oscar race for best picture.

The film about a risk-taking bomb disposal technician beat out such celebrated nominees as "Avatar," "Inglourious Basterds" and "Up in the Air" Sunday night.

"The Hurt Locker" also bested the films "Star Trek," "District 9," "An Education," "Invictus," "Up" and "Precious: Based on the Novel 'Push' By Sapphire" at the Producer Guild Awards in Hollywood.

The awards were the latest kudofest in the run-up to the Academy Awards in March.

The Full List of Winners:

Source: Yahoo!Movies/AP

2010 PGA AWARD WINNERS

The Darryl F. Zanuck Producer of the Year Award in Theatrical Motion Pictures
"The Hurt Locker"
Kathryn Bigelow
Mark Boal
Nicolas Chartier
Greg Shapiro

The Producers Guild of America Producer of the Year Award in Animated Theatrical Motion Pictures
"Up"
Jonas Rivera

The Producers Guild of America Producer of the Year Award in Documentary Theatrical Motion Pictures
"The Cove"
Fisher Stevens
Paula DuPre Pesmen

The Danny Thomas Producer of the Year Award in Episodic Television -- Comedy
"30 Rock"
Lorne Michaels
Tina Fey
Marci Klein
David Miner
Robert Carlock
Jeff Richmond
Don Scardino
Jerry Kupfer

The Norman Felton Producer of the Year Award in Episodic Television -- Drama
"Mad Men"
Matthew Weiner
Scott Hornbacher
Lisa Albert
Andre & Maria Jacquemetton

The Producers Guild of America Producer of the Year Award in Non-Fiction Television
"60 Minutes"
Jeff Fager

The Producers Guild of America Producer of the Year Award in Live Entertainment and Competition Television
"The Colbert Report"
Stephen T. Colbert, DFA
Jon Stewart
Allison Silverman
Richard Dahm
Meredith Bennett
Tom Purcell

The David L. Wolper Producer of the Year Award in Long-Form Television
"Grey Gardens"
Lucy Barzun Donnelly
Rachael Horovitz
Michael Sucsy
David Coatsworth


HONORARY AWARDS

Milestone Award
Michael Lynton, chairman and CEO, Sony Pictures Entertaiment
Amy Pascal, co-chairman, SPE

Norman Lear Achievement in Television
Mark Burnett

David O. Selznick Achievement Award in Motion Pictures
John Lasseter, chief creative officer, Walt Disney and Pixar Animation Studios

Vanguard Award
Joss Whedon

The Stanley Kramer Award
"Precious: Based on the Novel 'Push' by Sapphire"Get More Entertainment News from The Hollywood Reporter

And they're off! Awards Season officially kicks off (in a minor way) with the Gotham Award Winners!

Best Feature

* The Hurt Locker Kathryn Bigelow, director; Kathryn Bigelow, Mark Boal, Nicolas Chartier, Greg Shapiro, producers (Summit Entertainment)

Best Documentary

* Food, Inc. Robert Kenner, director; Robert Kenner, Elise Pearlstein, producers (Magnolia Pictures)

Best Ensemble Performance

* The Hurt Locker

Breakthrough Director

* Robert Siegel for Big Fan

Breakthrough Actor

* Catalina Saavedra in The Maid

Best Film Not Playing at a Theater Near You

* You Won’t Miss Me; Ry Russo-Young, director/producer


Oscar Meter: Up
- The Hurt Locker for Best Picture and Best Director

Oscar Meter: Down
- nothing

"The Hurt Locker"'s Mark Boal to receive a (well deserved) writing award

I just hope this is the start of a very long line of awards for this brilliant little war movie.

Source: HollywoodReporter.com

Mark Boal will get Gucci Group Award for screenplay
Staff report

Sept 8, 2009, 03:17 PM ET
Mark Boal is the recipient of the fourth annual Gucci Group Award for his screenplay for "The Hurt Locker."

The award, which is presented to an artist who is new to film, was presented by Robert Polet, president and CEO of Gucci Group, at a Venice's Palazzo Grassi Monday night.

"Creativity, passion, innovation, our key values, allow us to recognise artists who have reinvented themselves through cinema," Polet said. "Mark Boal and all of the winners so far have had the courage to step outside their comfort zone and push themselves to excel in a new arena and we have the pleasure to acknowledge this innovation and excellence."

"I'm very honored to receive this recognition for 'The Hurt Locker's' screenplay. The movie means the world to me, and hopefully it can show people an unseen side of the war. I'd like to thank Kathryn Bigelow for her direction and support, and the entire award committee for putting me in the esteemed company of [previous winners] Steve McQueen, Julian Schnabel and Nick Cave," Boal said.

The award selection committee consisted of director/actress/screenwriter Zoe Cassavetes, actress Patricia Clarkson, photographer Mario Testino, journalist Ingrid Sischy and Marco Mueller, director of the Venice International Film Festival.

Mark Boal began his career as investigative reporter and writer of long form non-fiction. In 2003, he wrote "Death and Dishonor," the true story of a military veteran who goes searching for his missing son, which later became the basis for Paul Haggis' "In the Valley of Elah." In 2004, Boal spent two weeks in Baghdad, embedded with the members of an Explosive Ordnance Disposal unit. His reporting led to the screenplay for "The Hurt Locker."

Awesome news of the day: Kathryn Bigelow and Mark Boal reteaming!

Source: Firstshowing.net

Paramount is reteaming director Kathryn Bigelow and writer Mark Boal on a new action/adventure project titled Triple Frontier. Bigelow and Boal last collaborated on The Hurt Locker (read my interview with them), one of this summer's best films about a bomb tech in Iraq. Triple Frontier is described as a high-stakes ensemble project that is set in the notorious border zone between Paraguay, Argentina andBrazil - making "la triple frontera" difficult to monitor and a haven for organized crime. The Dark Knightproducer Charles Roven is developing through Atlas Entertainment with Alex Gartner and Steve Alexander.

If you haven't seen The Hurt Locker yet, then I suggest you make it your mission to see it before the summer is over, it's that good. My hopes are that Triple Frontier is a lot like that, with very intense scenes and an incredibly realistic feel, but set in that border zone that it's named for. The exact logline is being kept under wraps, but they've revealed enough to make me very interested anyway. And with CharlesRoven producing, that means they'll be able to make this as big as they need to and it will actually get a proper wide release, which is exactly what they deserve coming off of The Hurt Locker. We'll let you know when we hear more!

"The Hurt Locker" - REVIEW

My only word of warning about Kathryn Bigelow's "The Hurt Locker" is that it probably will leave you drained and exhausted. Aside from that, the only other thing I would say, is that you should look and see if the film is playing in your city, and if it is, go to the next showing; waste no time. If you have the chance to see this art house war film on the big screen, then do so. You may be left stumbling out of the theater in exhaustion after the 2 hours are over, but it will have been worth it, to see what is not just the best American film to come out this year so far, but the best film to come out this year, PERIOD.

It opens with a bomb squad that we spend just about the entire film with. The setting is Baghdad circa 2004. We hear and see the troops clearing the streets and the bomb squad goes to work, both aprehensive about the danger ahead, but also able to joke to each other. In this opening scene it's instantly clear how commanding Bigelow's direction is. She's making a "man's movie" better than most men. Equally impressive is Mark Boal's un-preachy, pretention-free screenplay. The only "message" the the movie carries is relevant only to some of the people in the movie: war is a drug. Save for one or two stylized slow-motion shots of pebbles being lifted into the air by an explosion, there is no "gloss". To quote Mick LaSalle's review, "[Bigelow] uses hand-held cameras in The Hurt Locker, not to make viewers dizzy or to instill excitement that isn't there, but to create a subtle sense of being alongside the characters. Her camera doesn't shake. It breathes. It pulses." And he's dead right. There is no forced excitement, no obnoxious shaking of the camera just to appear "gritty" (I'm looking at you, "Quantum of Solace"), but a real purpose. The camera is our guide. It is our way of looking into the lives of these men as they face scary-as-hell situations almost daily. There are no elegant crane shots or artfully composed landscape vistas. At any given moment the camera might move, even if it's only a little, just to keep you firmly planted in the movie's world. The same applies to the music. There is no "theme" or over-bearing tones that always play "just in time" to let us know that something is about to happen. It is heard infrequently, and when it IS heard, it is totally unobtrusive.

Of course, all of this would be wasted if the main characters were assigned to poor actors, but this is not the case. While accomplished actors like Guy Pearce and Ralph Fiennes have cameo appearences, the real protagonists here are Sergeants William James (Jeremy Renner), JT Sanborn (Anthony Mackie), and Specialist Owen Eldridge (Brian Geraghty). Never heard of them? Join the club. James is something of a "wild man". Example: he takes his helmet and most of his gear off in the middle of a search through a suspicious car. His reason? "I'm probably gonna die...and I want to be comfortable when I do." Such behavior doesn't sit well with Sanborn, who doesn't like what he sees as James' total recklessness. Needless to say, they don't start of as the best of friends. The third man, Eldridge, has a problem of his own. He feels that he's going to die in Iraq no matter what...and he just wants to make sure he does it while fighting. As he tells an Army doctor, "I want to die with some real honor" (I'm really loosley paraphrasing there). These three are the heart of the film, particularly Mr. Renner. Seems like the perfect way to set up some heavy duty male bonding and then tear it all apart with some ugly tear-jerking. However, Bigelow and Boal have different plans for us. They never indulge in sentimentality. They never build characters up just for the purpose of being taken down to make us shed a cheap tear. Of course, these characters are fictional, but to me they might as well have been real people, and the script treats them as real people, and for that, I cannot praise the film enough. The performances are as real as the tension, which is considerable but never artificially "enhanced". The screenplay has a raw intelligence that fits beautifully with Bigelow's direction, and as I said, there is no obnoxious preaching or heavy handed symbolism.

As you may remember, 2007 was the year that Hollywood tried to really get us to see films about the war in Iraq and, well...it didn't go so well. Even the "best" of them were preachy, and looked at the war mostly from the standpoint of people far removed from combat. And then, just two years later, another Iraq War film, one smart enough to drop the preaching and just show us how scary war is comes along and blows them all away. And to think, that all it needed was a woman's touch...

Grade: A