Directors Guild of America to Honor Ang Lee, Nancy Utley, Amy Klobuchar

By Dave McNary

LOS ANGELES (Variety.com) – The Directors Guild of America has selected director Ang Lee, Fox Searchlight chairman Nancy Utley, U.S. Senator Amy Klobuchar, SAG-AFTRA senior adviser John McGuire, and costume designer Ann Roth for its annual DGA Honors.

The awards will be held at the DGA Theater in New York City on Oct. 18. The DGA Honors recognizes individuals and institutions that have made distinguished contributions to American culture through the world of film and television, and recognizes the diversity of achievement — in business, government, and labor —required to produce the best entertainment in the world.

“There is nowhere more fitting to celebrate the confluence of entertainment, labor and politics than New York, our cultural epicenter,” said DGA president Thomas Schlamme. “It’s where a legendary director like , as a budding Taiwanese filmmaker, came to get started – and costume designing great Ann Roth made her mark in film and on Broadway. The success of creators is made possible by collaborative business leaders who support and elevate their creative visions like Fox Searchlight chair Nancy Utley, labor leaders who fight for their rights like SAG-AFTRA senior advisor John McGuire, and lawmakers like Senator Amy Klobuchar who advocate for them and safeguard their work. Our culture is enriched by such a critical support system, resulting in the best film and television in the world.”

Past DGA Honors recipients have included influential filmmakers Ron Howard, Nora Ephron, Robert Altman, Jonathan Demme, Milos Forman, Curtis Hanson, Spike Lee, Mike Nichols, Arthur Penn, Sydney Pollack, Martin Scorsese, Dick Wolf, Lorne Michaels, David Chase, Sheila Nevins, Robert De Niro, Danny Glover, Jane Alexander, and Sherry Lansing.