‘The English Patient’ Wins Top Directors Guild Award

In an important precursor to this year’s Academy Awards, Anthony Minghella won the 49th Directors Guild of America feature film award for “The English Patient” on Saturday night.

Minghella, who was not present, relayed a message of thanks in which he referred to the six minutes of credits that appear at the end of the film. “This film is, in fact, a film by them,” he said.

The Directors Guild held simultaneous ceremonies at New York’s Sheraton Hotel and at the Century Plaza in Century City to announce its choice for best feature film director of 1996.

Although the evening honored directors, one of Hollywood’s biggest stars took home a top honor.

Al Pacino won the award for documentaries for directing “Looking for Richard,” about the making of a film of Shakespeare’s Richard III.

Other awards went to the directors of “The Atlanta Olympic Games Opening Ceremony” and “Seinfeld.”

Honorary or lifetime achievement awards were presented to Stanley Kubrick (“2001: A Space Odyssey,” “Spartacus,” “A Clockwork Orange,” “Full Metal Jacket”), Delbert Mann, stage manager Joe Dicso, newsman Max Schindler and sports director Larry Kamm.

The other feature film nominees were Joel Coen for “Fargo,” Cameron Crowe for “Jerry Maguire,” Scott Hicks for “Shine” and Mike Leigh for “Secrets & Lies.”

The Directors Guild Award historically has been a harbinger of the Oscars. Only three times has the winner of the Directors Guild Award not gone on to win the Oscar for best director.

Conspicuously missing from the lists of Directors Guild and Oscar nominees was Milos Forman, who won the Golden Globe Award for directing “The People vs. Larry Flynt.”