TORONTO — David Cronenberg’s “Eastern Promises” swept the Directors Guild of Canada Awards in Toronto on Saturday night.
Cronenberg’s Russian mobster drama won in all five categories it entered — best director, best feature film and best picture editing, sound editing and production design.
Losing out to “Eastern Promises” in all five juried competitions was Jeremy Podeswa’s “Fugitive Pieces.”
Carol Spier, who has designed 15 of Cronenberg’s movies over a 30-year career, thanked the Canadian director for “lots of wonderful challenges in beautiful pictures, when accepting her trophy for best production design at the Royal York Hotel in Toronto.
Holly Dale (“Heroes”) won for best TV series director for her work on “Durham County,” which also won for best TV series picture editing, and Ken Girotti took top honors for best TV movie direction for the police drama “Mayerthorpe.”
Other winners included “The Englishman’s Boy” for best overall TV movie, “Intelligence” coming tops in the TV drama competition, and “Corner Gas” earning a DGC award for best comedy.
The DGC awards, emceed by Los Angeles-based comic Shaun Majumder, also honored Eric Till (Bethune) with a lifetime achievement award, while longtime DGC member and former president Alan Goluboff was handed the Don Haldane distinguished service award.
