Photo Source: ABC
Among the surprises: a nomination for the Lifetime anthology "Five," with mini-movies directed by Demi Moore, Jennifer Aniston, Alicia Keys, Patty Jenkins and Penelope Spheeris.
"The caliber of work being done on television these days is incredible, and our director nominees in each category are an indispensable element to the success of every project -- establishing and enhancing the vision and tone, eliciting outstanding performances and furthering the narrative arc through their creative choices," said Taylor Hackford, president of the Directors Guild of America. "That they are able to create excellence regardless of obstacles like tighter schedules and in an environment in which audiences have more entertainment options to choose from -- is a true testament to the importance of directorial skill in television."
In the comedy series directing category, "Curb Your Enthusiasm" notched multiple nominations for "Palestinatian Chicken" (Robert B. Weide) and "The Divorce" (David Steinberg). The HBO comedy will do double duty against another two-time nominee "Modern Family," which will pit Fred Savage ("After the Fire") and Michael Spiller ("Express Christmas") against each other. "30 Rock" is the lone NBC comedy receiving a nomination for Don Scardino's "Double-Edged Sword."
The drama series category was dominated by cable shows: "Game of Thrones'" Tim Van Patten, "The Killing's" Jenkins, "Breaking Bad's" Vince Gilligan and "Homeland's" Michael Cuesta were all recognized. The series finale of DirecTV/NBC's football drama "Friday Night Lights" was the lone broadcast offering to receive a nom in the category.
For the made-for-TV movies and miniseries category, Lifetime's "Five" -- which averaged just 1.3 million viewers in its premiere telecast in October -- was acknowledged for the work by Moore, Aniston, Spheeris, Keys and Jenkins. That TV movie will compete opposite Reelzchannel's "The Kennedys" (Jon Cassar), Lifetime's "Girl Fight" (Stephen Gyllenhaal) and HBO's "Thurgood" (Michael Stevens).
CBS' "Kennedy Center Honors," directed by Louis J. Horvitz; NBC's "Saturday Night Live" with host Justin Timberlake, directed by Don Roy King; Comedy Central's "The Daily Show With Jon Stewart," directed by Chuck O'Neil; and the 65th annual Tony Awards on CBS directed by Glenn Weiss have all been nominated in outstanding directorial achievement in the musical variety category.
Reality programs "The Biggest Loser" (Neil P. Degroot), "The Next Iron Chef: Super Chefs" (Eytan Keller), "Master Chef" (Brian Smith), "Fear Factor" (J. Rupert Thompson) and "The Amazing Race" (Bertram van Munster) will vie for the directing in reality programming prize.
"General Hospital" and "All My Children" were the only daytime soaps to reecive more than one nomination, with the former notching two for "Intervention" (William Ludel) and "Episode #12364" (Scott McKinsey) while the latter grabbed noms for Casey Childs and Angela Tessinari. "One Life to Live" (Larry Carpenter) and "The Bold and the Beautiful" (Cynthia J. Popp) were also nominated.
Children's programs receiving noms include Nickelodeon's "Fred 2: Night of the Living Fred" and "Best Player," Disney Channel's "Geek Charming" and "Lemonade Mouth," and HBO's "A Child's Garden of Poetry." Commercial nominees include Lance Acord (Park Pictures), Dante Ariola (MJZ), Fredrik Bond (MJZ), Steve Miller (@radical.media) and Noam Murro (Biscuit Filmworks).
Kelsey Grammer will serve as host of the 64th annual DGA Awards, which will be held Jan. 28 at the Grand Ballroom at Hollywood & Highland. The DGA announced its feature film nominees on Jan. 9 and will announce the documentary nominees on Jan. 12.
– The Hollywood Reporter
