72nd Annual Directors Guild of America Awards Ceremony

Los Angeles, California, USA. 25th January, 2020. The 72nd Annual Directors Guild of America (DGA) Awards ceremony was hosted by filmmaker/actor Judd Apatow at the Ritz Carlton Hotel in downtown Los Angeles. DGA President, Thomas Schlamme, opened the awards ceremony with a speech to the audience of over 1,500 guests. The presenters of the awards included (in alphabetical order): Diane Amos, Anthony Anderson, Todd Arnow, Dean-Charles Chapman, Terry Crews, Alfonso Cuarón, Leonardo DiCaprio, Lee Jung Eun, Catherine Hardwicke, Norman Jewison, Christine Lahti, George MacKay, Chrissy Metz, Don Mischer, Al Pacino, Joe Pesci, Sam Rockwell, Katheryn Winnick and Constance Zimmer.

The winners of the Directors Guild of America Outstanding Directorial Achievement Awards for 2019 were announced at the event with the host, Judd Apatow, introducing the five nominees for best director that included Bong Joon Ho for "Parasite", Sam Mendes for "1917", Martin Scorsese for "The Irishman", Quentin Tarantino for "Once Upon a Time in Hollywood", and Taika Waititi for "Jojo Rabbit".

The night's top award went to Sam Mendes for his feature film, "1917", an epic World War I film based on the personal experiences of his grandfather, which won the DGA Award for Outstanding Directorial Achievement in a Theatrical Feature Film for 2019. This award added to his other wins this season including Best Director and Best Drama at the Golden Globes, and the Darryl F. Zanuck Award for Outstanding Producer of Theatrical Motion Pictures at the Producers Guild of America (PGA) Awards. Mr. Mendes previously won the DGA's Best Director award in 1999 for "American Sweetheart."

The big winners on the television side included director Nicole Kassel for HBO’s "Watchmen" which won the DGA Award for Best Dramatic Series, and Bill Hader, who won Best Comedy for "Barry", Johan Renck who won Best Television Movie/Limited Series for "Chernobyl", and Amy Schatz who is a five-time DGA winner and won Best Children's Program for "Song of Parkland".

Joey Zhou, the host of HTTV's "Zhou Zheng Show”, attended the DGA Awards and interviewed many directors and celebrities. Mr. Zhou was attending the DGA awards for the fourth time, and has been involved as a producer of feature films, including last year's documentary “Chasing the Dream’ which was directed by DGA member and founder of the International Documentary Film Association, Harrison Engle, who also attended the awards ceremony. At the DGA Awards Mr. Zhou, had the opportunity to speak with Sam Mendes from “1917” and recited a poem to him from the movie.

Other interviews included winners Steven Bognar and Julia Reichert, who won Best Documentary for "American Factory", actor John Savage, and nominees who were attending the event. HTTV Correspondent, Leo Lev, reported in Los Angeles.