Nice Box of Chocolates for Zemeckis : Awards: Directors Guild tribute to ‘Forrest Gump’ director moves him to the front of the line in Oscar race.

Steven Spielberg opened the envelope and was about to read the name of this year’s top award in film given out by the Directors Guild of America when he looked out into the crowd at Robert Zemeckis, the director of “Forrest Gump.”

“I’ve got a box of chocolates for you, Bob,” said the smiling Spielberg, alluding to the now-famous line in “Gump.”

And with that, the audience at the 47th annual Directors Guild Awards show in Beverly Hills knew instantly that Zemeckis had not only walked away with the evening’s biggest prize, but now emerged as the front-runner in the race for best director at the Academy Awards on March 27. Only three times since 1949 has the winner of the DGA award not gone on to win a best director Oscar.

Asked afterward what he thought his chances were of winning the Oscar, Zemeckis replied: “I would be way too superstitious to answer a question like that.”

Going into the Directors Guild Awards, Zemeckis was considered a favorite by many in Hollywood who see “Gump”--a film that exudes mainstream American values--as a juggernaut.

Some thought Quentin Tarantino, whose gritty drug underworld film “Pulp Fiction” won a wide following and the top prize at Cannes, might pull off an upset, but it was not to be.

Neither would it be for Robert Redford, who directed “Quiz Show,” a film about the TV game-show scandals of the 1950s that was a favorite of critics, if not audiences. Considered more long shots were DGA nominees Mike Newell for the comedy “Four Weddings and a Funeral” and first-time director Frank Darabont for the prison drama “The Shawshank Redemption.”

Asked how it felt to now be considered the Oscar front-runner, Zemeckis told reporters: “Now I’m really nervous.”

Zemeckis said he considered the Directors Guild prize a great honor because it was bestowed by his fellow directors.

“It’s absolutely true,” he said. “You are awarded it by your peers. It’s your own brothers who know exactly what it is that you do because they see the work like no one else does. That’s why it’s such an honor.”

Earlier in the evening, after scenes from “Gump” had been shown to the audience on large TV screens, Zemeckis offered a light-hearted assessment of the plight of the director.

“I think that producers and agents and studio executives, with all due respect, don’t know exactly what it is that we do,” he said. “Actors think they know what we do. Critics will never know what we do. Our friends and family try to know what it is that we do. And, our audiences should always know what we do.

“All of us in this room,” he added, “know that movie directing is exhilarating, exhausting, addicting, painful, rewarding--and a very cool job.”

Zemeckis also said it felt “cosmic” to have Spielberg personally present him with the award because he said Spielberg had persuaded studio executives to let Zemeckis direct his first film, “I Want to Hold Your Hand,” in 1978.

But feature films were only a part of the awards show Saturday night at the Beverly Hilton.

One of the evening’s major awards went to James Ivory, the director of such elegant and richly textured films as “A Room With a View” and “Howards End.” He was given the guild’s highest honor--the D. W. Griffith Award--which over the years has gone to such legendary directors as Cecil B. DeMille, John Ford, Frank Capra and Alfred Hitchcock.

Meanwhile, Sheldon Leonard, who gave America such memorable TV series as “The Dick Van Dyke Show,” “The Andy Griffith Show” and “I Spy,” was made an honorary life member of the Directors Guild, while Bud Greenspan, a sports documentary and film director, received the guild’s Sports Award for Outstanding Lifetime Achievement.

The Directors Guild also celebrated achievement in documentaries as well as prime-time and daytime television programming.

In documentaries, director Steve James won an award for “Hoop Dreams,” a three-hour film shot over almost five years that chronicled the lives of two young black men from the inner city as they aspired to become professional basketball players.

Although the film was highly praised by critics around the country, Hollywood was stunned when the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences failed to nominate it for best documentary. That seeming oversight has since led to a review of the process by which the academy selects documentaries.

“I don’t have any sour grapes about the Academy Award nomination,” James said, noting that the film still was nominated for editing.

“Sure, in my heart, I would have loved to have had the documentary nomination and had the chance to win an Oscar for that,” he said, “ . . . but I was an editor on the film so I still have a shot at an Oscar.”

In the category of television dramatic specials, director Rod Holcomb won for the pilot of the hit NBC series “ER.”

Holcomb said “long-form” TV directors, those whose shows run two hours or more, are not as recognized as they should be. “I think a long-form director is somebody who needs to get more recognition,” he said, “because they are really doing movies.”

Other winners included:

* Dramatic Series Night: Charles Haid for “ER” (“Into That Good Night”).

* Comedy Series: David Lee for “Frasier” (“The Matchmaker”).

* Variety: Dwight Hemion for “Barbra Streisand: The Concert.”

* Daytime Serials: Michael Stich for “The Bold and the Beautiful.”

* Daytime Drama: Jesus Salvador Trevino for “P.O.W.E.R., The Eddie Matos Story.”

* Commercials: Michael Bay for “Aaron Burr” (California Milk Advisory Board), “Deion Sanders” (Nike), “Vending Machine” (California Milk), “Big Lawyer Round-Up” (Miller Lite), “Baby and Cat” (California Milk).