Directors Guild of American Outstanding Directorial Achievement Awards (2008)

The winners of the 2008 Directors Guild of America Outstanding Directorial Achievement Awards and the recipients of the Guild's 2009 Career Achievement Awards were announced tonight during the 61st Annual DGA Awards Dinner at the Hyatt Regency Century Plaza in Los Angeles. Danny Boyle won the DGA's Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Feature Film for Slumdog Millionaire.

• Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Feature Film: Danny Boyle (Slumdog Millionaire)
• Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Movies for Television/Miniseries: Jay Roach (Recount)
• Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Dramatic Series Night: Dan Attias (The Wire – “Transitions”)
• Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Comedy Series: Paul Feig (The Office – “Dinner Party”)
• Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Musical Variety: Brent (Bucky) Gunts (Opening Ceremony Beijing 2008 Olympic Summer Games)
• Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Reality Programs: Tony Cross (America’s Next Top Model - “1002”)
• Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Daytime Serials: Larry Carpenter (One Live to Live – Episode #10,281 – “So You Think You Can be Shane Morasco’s Father?”)
• Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Documentary: Ari Folman (Waltz with Bashir)
• Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Commercials: Peter Thwaites (Production Company – Gorgeous Enterprises)
• Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Children’s Programs: Amy Schatz (Classical Baby (I’m Grown Up Now) - “The Poetry Show”)
• Service and Achievement Award Recipient: Roger Ebert (Film Critic/Author)

Feature Film has traditionally been one of the industry's most accurate barometers for who will win the Best Director Academy Award. Only six times since the DGA Awards began in 1948 has the Feature Film winner not gone on to win the corresponding Academy Award. The six (6) exceptions are as follows:

• 1968: Anthony Harvey won the DGA Award for The Lion in Winter while Carol Reed took home the Oscar for Oliver!
• 1972: Francis Ford Coppola received the DGA’s nod for The Godfather while the Academy selected Bob Fosse for Cabaret.
• 1985: Steven Spielberg received his first DGA aware for The Color Purple while the Oscar went to Sydney Pollack for Out of Africa.
• 1995: Ron Howard was chosen by the DGA for his direction of Apollo 13 while the Academy votes selected Mel Gibson for Braveheart.
• 2000: Ang Lee won the DGA Award for his direction of Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon while Steven Soderbergh won the Academy Award for Traffic.
• 2002: Rob Marshall won the DGA Award for Chicago while Roman Polanski received the Academy Award for The Pianist.