The Aviator with Adam Scott, Cate Blanchett, Jude Law, and Leonardo DiCaprio. At the Producers and Directors Guild awards, this season’s Best Film vs. Best Director split has continued unabated.- Guild awards’ unsurprising Best Director vs. Best Film split: Whereas veteran Clint Eastwood was the Directors Guild Award winner for Million Dollar Baby, the Producers Guild opted instead for Martin Scorsese’s The Aviator.
- More Guild awards: Further below are also listed the top choices of the American Cinema Editors, Art Directors Guild, Costume Designers Guild, and Visual Effects Society.
Guild awards’ Best Director vs. Best Film split feels like déjà vu
The (U.S.-based) Guild awards’ Best Director and Best Film picks have extended the current awards season trend of bifurcated top choices.
For instance, the National Board of Review’s Best Film was Marc Forster’s Finding Neverland, but their Best Director was Michael Mann for Collateral, while the Boston Society of Film Critics went for Alexander Payne’s Sideways as Best Film but Zhang Yimou as Best Director for House of Flying Daggers.
One Best Film/Best Director split seen several times has pitted Clint Eastwood’s Million Dollar Baby vs. Martin Scorsese’s The Aviator. The Dallas-Ft. Worth Film Critics Association, for one, has chosen the former as Best Film but Scorsese as Best Director. The Golden Globes, for their part, went the other way around.
This year’s Hollywood guild awards have taken that particular Million Dollar Baby vs. The Aviator route.
Whereas the Directors Guild of America opted for the boxing melodrama starring Eastwood, Hilary Swank, and Morgan Freeman, the Producers Guild of America went for the big-budget Howard Hughes biopic starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Cate Blanchett.
That makes things a bit complicated when it comes to Academy Award predictions.
More Guild awards
More winners of Guild awards – or Society awards, as the case may be – include:
- The American Cinema Editors’ The Aviator and Ray.
- The Art Directors Guild’s Lemony Snicket’s A Series of Unfortunate Events and The Terminal.
- The Costume Designers Guild’s Lemony Snicket’s A Series of Unfortunate Events and The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou.
- The Visual Effects Society’s Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban and The Day After Tomorrow.
Honorary winners range from Raise the Red Lantern and House of Flying Daggers director Zhang Yimou to actress-singer-dancer Debbie Reynolds, Gene Kelly’s romantic interest in Singin’ in the Rain back in 1952 and a Best Actress Oscar nominee for the 1964 musical The Unsinkable Molly Brown.
Yimou received the Art Directors Guild’s Outstanding Contribution to Cinematic Imagery Award; Reynolds was given the Costume Designers Guild’s President’s Award.
Guild Awards: Partial list of winners & nominees
See below a partial list of winners and nominees of the following groups/guilds: Directors Guild of America, Producers Guild of America, American Cinema Editors, Art Directors Guild, Costume Designers Guild, and Visual Effects Society.
Directors Guild of America
Motion Picture
Martin Scorsese – The Aviator.
Marc Forster – Finding Neverland.
* Clint Eastwood – Million Dollar Baby.
Taylor Hackford – Ray.
Alexander Payne – Sideways.Documentary
* Byambasuren Davaa & Luigi Falorni – The Story of the Weeping Camel / Die Geschichte vom weinenden Kamel.
Ross Kauffman & Zana Briski – Born Into Brothels.
Ross McElwee – Bright Leaves.
Michael Moore – Fahrenheit 9/11.
Jehane Noujaim – Control Room.Television Movie
Robert Altman – Tanner on Tanner, Parts 1-4.
Stephen Hopkins – The Life and Death of Peter Sellers.
Lloyd Kramer – The Five People You Meet in Heaven.
Christopher Reeve – The Brooke Ellison Story.
* Joseph Sargent – Something the Lord Made.
Producers Guild of America
Feature Film
* The Aviator, Michael Mann & Graham King.
Finding Neverland.
The Incredibles.
Million Dollar Baby.
Sideways.Longform Television
* Angels in America – Mike Nichols, Cary Brokaw, Celia D. Costas & Michael Haley.
Horatio Hornblower 3, Hornblower: Duty.
Ike: Countdown to D-Day.
The Lion in Winter.
Something the Lord Made.David O. Selznick Achievement Award: Laura Ziskin.
David Susskind Achievement Award: John Wells.
Stanley Kramer Award: Hotel Rwanda & Innocent Voices.
American Cinema Editors
Film (Dramatic)
* The Aviator, Thelma Schoonmaker.
Collateral.
Finding Neverland.
Kill Bill: Vol. 2.
Kinsey.
Million Dollar Baby.Film (Comedy or Musical)
De-Lovely.
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind.
The Incredibles.
* Ray, Paul Hirsch.
Sideways.Documentary
Fahrenheit 9/11.
My Architect.
* Riding Giants, Paul Crowder.Miniseries or Motion Picture (Non-Commercial Television)
Coast to Coast.
The Life and Death of Peter Sellers.
* Something the Lord Made, Michael Brown.Miniseries or Motion Picture (Commercial Television):
Back When We Were Grownups.
* Redemption, Terilyn A. Shropshire.
The Wool Cap.Career Achievement: Dave Blewitt & Jim Clark.
ACE Golden Eddie Filmmaker of the Year: James L. Brooks.
Art Directors Guild
Film (Period or Fantasy)
The Aviator.
Finding Neverland.
The Incredibles.
* Lemony Snicket’s A Series of Unfortunate Events – Rick Heinrichs.
The Phantom of the Opera.Film (Contemporary)
Collateral.
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind.
The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou.
Million Dollar Baby.
* The Terminal – Alex McDowell.Television Movie/Miniseries
* And Starring Pancho Villa as Himself – Herbert Pinter.
Back When We Were Grownups.
3: The Dale Earnhardt Story.Outstanding Contribution to Cinematic Imagery Award: Zhang Yimou.
Costume Designers Guild
Film (Fantasy or Period)
The Aviator.
De-Lovely.
* Lemony Snicket’s A Series of Unfortunate Events, Colleen Atwood.
The Phantom of the Opera.
Ray.Film (Contemporary)
Alfie.
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind.
Kill Bill: Vol. 2.
* The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou, Milena Canonero.
Ocean’s Twelve.Television (Contemporary): Sex and the City, Patricia Field.
Television (Fantasy or Period): The Life and Death of Peter Sellers, Jill Taylor.
President’s Award: Debbie Reynolds.
Producer/Director Award: Ismail Merchant & James Ivory.
Visual Effects Society
Visual Effects in a Visual Effects Driven Motion Picture: Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban.
Single Visual Effect: “Tidal Wave,” The Day After Tomorrow.
Compositing: “Train Sequence,” Spider-Man 2.
Created Environment: “NYC Street – Night,” Spider-Man 2.
Supporting Visual Effects: The Aviator.
Performance in a Visual Effects Film: Alfred Molina, Spider-Man 2.
“Guild Awards” endnotes
Directors Guild of America website.
Producers Guild of America website.
Jude Law, Cate Blanchett, Adam Scott, and Leonardo DiCaprio The Aviator image: Warner Bros. | Miramax.
“Guild Awards: Best Director vs. Best Film Split Continues” last updated in July 2021.