Chloé Zhao becomes 1st woman of color to win top DGA honor

LOS ANGELES, April 12, (AP): Chloé Zhao’s “Nomadland” continued its tour of dominance through awards season Saturday night, when Zhao took top honors at the 73rd annual Directors Guild Association Awards.

She is the second woman to earn the honor and the first woman of color to do so. Kathryn Bigelow was the first for “The Hurt Locker.” And it all but solidifies her frontrunner status leading up to the Oscars on April 25.

The untelevised event was held virtually with nominees accepting over zoom calls from around the world, in lieu of the typical hotel ballroom ceremony in Beverly Hills.

Only seven times in history has the DGA winner ever not gone on to take the best director prize at the Academy Awards. Last year was a rare exception when the Guild honored “1917” director Sam Mendes and then the Oscar went to “Parasite” director Bong Joon Ho.

Zhao was up against Emerald Fennell for “Promising Young Woman,” Aaron Sorkin for “The Trial of the Chicago 7,” Lee Isaac Chung for “Minari” and David Fincher for “Mank.” The only difference in the Oscars lineup is that Sorkin is not among the nominees — instead, Thomas Vinterberg is for “Another Round.”

Zhao’s lyrical film about transient workers in the American West starring Frances McDormand started its awards journey winning the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival, the People’s Choice award at the Toronto International Film Festival, the Golden Globe for best drama and best director and the top honor from the Producer’s Guild.

The first-time directing prize went to Darius Marder for “Sound of Metal,” his innovative exploration of what happens when a drummer has severe, traumatic hearing loss. And documentary directing was given to Gregory Kershaw and Michael Dweck for “The Truffle Hunters,” which follows a group of older men who seek out the expensive and rare white Alba truffle in the forests of Piedmont, Italy. The Directors Guild also celebrates achievements in television directing.

Lesli Linka Glatter won the dramatic prize for her “Homeland” episode “Prisoners of War,” Susanna Fogel took the comedy honor for the “In Case of Emergency” episode of “The Flight Attendant” and Scott Frank was recognized for directing the limited series “The Queen’s Gambit.”

LONDON:

Helen Mirren has

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been finding the bright side of the pandemic. Working from home? “Much more convenient,” she said. She bought a ring light for Zooms, balancing her laptop on two dictionaries. “I love it... I hope elements of our quarantine lockdown are going to stick with us.”

She’s savoring slow dinners with her husband, the director Taylor Hackford. They’ve been living together in the mountains near California’s Lake Tahoe for much of the last year.

“It’s given me the opportunity to be with my husband in a sort of normal everyday way, which has been fantastic. It is actually the first time in all of our 30 years together that we’ve sat down at the table each night and had dinner together. Normally we’re getting on planes, going here, there . ... So it’s been fabulous just to be a normal person.”

The 75-year-old British star is backing the documentary “My Beautiful Stutter,” which looks at the work of New York City-based nonprofit group SAY: The Stuttering Association for the Young.

The Discovery+ film follows five children who have been bullied due to how they speak, and looks at how the charity helps them with their confidence. The children meet others who stutter, and much of the documentary examines their time at Camp SAY.

Mirren was introduced to the charity by friend Kelli O’Hara, and has been an advocate and ambassador for years, hosting SAY’s fundraising gala in New York.

“I have known people who, as we say in England, stammer or stutter, actor friends of mine who have quite a severe stutter off-stage and can walk on stage and do Shakespeare absolutely fluently. And I was always sort of rather surprised or moved or affected by that,” Mirren said.

SAY founder Taro Alexander called the film, directed by Ryan Gielen, a “beautiful representation” of the group’s work.

Mirren, meanwhile, has restarted acting under COVID-19 protocols, but said social distancing and face coverings make film productions “just not so much fun” as they used to be.