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Brokeback's Lee honoured by Directors' Guild

Ang Lee, Brokeback Mountain

Story by Jack Foley

BROKEBACK Mountain director Ang Lee has been honoured by the Directors Guild of America (DGA) for the Oscar-tipped movie.

The win now makes the Taiwanese director a firm favourite to land the best director prize at the Oscars for his film about the love that develops between two cowboys.

Lee triumphed over George Clooney for Good Night, and Good Luck, Paul Haggis for Crash, Bennett Miller for Capote and Steven Spielberg for Munich.

However, Lee will probably remain sceptical about his chances of Oscar success, given that he was one of the exceptions to the rule about DGA winners going on to win Academy Awards.

Statistics show that 51 of the winners in the past 57 years have gone on to win the Oscar – but Lee was one of the few to miss out in 2001 when his film, Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, took the DGA accolade but lost out on Oscar night to Steven Soderbergh’s Traffic.

But Lee was delighted to accept the Guild prize saying that it was particularly meaningful because it was decided by fellow directors.

“This is like winning at home. This is professional approval,” he commented.

Clint Eastwood honoured

Hollywood legend Clint Eastwood followed up his DGA triumph for last year’s Million Dollar Baby with the guild’s lifetime achievement award at the ceremony on Saturday, January 28, 2006.

He joins an elite list of recipients of the special award, including Martin Scorsese, Steven Spielberg, Francis Ford Coppola, Stanley Kubrick, Woody Allen and Alfred Hitchcock.

Eastwood won the DGA accolade last year and went on to triumph at the Oscars for his boxing drama, Million Dollar Baby. He is currently working on two back-to-back films about the World War Two battle of Iwo Jima – based around the book, Flags of our Fathers.

Brokeback Mountain’s triunph, meanwhile, comes on top of the four trophies the film picked up at the recent Golden Globe Awards, as well as the top prize from the Producers Guild of America (PGA).

It is now in pole position for Oscar success and is expected to feature prominently when the nominations are announced on January 31.