LOS ANGELES, Dec. 12, 2005 (PRIMEZONE) -- Directors Guild of America President Michael Apted today announced the recipients of three special DGA Awards recognizing lifetime career achievement and extraordinary contributions to the Guild:
Jerry H. Ziesmer will receive the 2006 Frank Capra Achievement Award which is given to an Assistant Director or Unit Production Manager in recognition of career achievement in the industry and service to the Directors Guild of America; Joseph R. Aceti will receive the 2006 Lifetime Achievement Award in Sports Direction; and Donald Jacob will receive the 2006 Franklin J. Schaffner Achievement Award for an Associate Director or Stage Manager in recognition of career achievement in the industry and service to the Directors Guild of America.
All three awards will be given at the 58th Annual DGA Awards Dinner on Saturday, January 28, 2006 at the Hyatt Regency Century Plaza Hotel in Los Angeles.
"The strength and unity of the Directors Guild depends on the service and accomplishments of its members, both of which are embodied in these three very special award winners," Apted said. "By honoring their lifetime achievements and contributions to the Guild, we are honoring the lifeblood of our organization -- distinguished work and dedicated service."
Jerry Ziesmer, a DGA member since 1969, established himself as one of the premier feature assistant directors in the industry before turning his attention and talents to the Guild. He was elected to the DGA's AD/UPM/TC Council in 1987 and was an active council member until 1998. Between 1993 and 1996 he served as the council's chair. In 1987, he proposed the creation of the AD/UPM/TC Mentor Committee and was a member of that committee from its inception until 1998, serving as its chair from 1990 to 1996. Between 1988 and 1997 he was a member of the Employment Committee and, between 1993 and 1996, he concurrently served on the Administrative Committee. Since 1987, Ziesmer has served as a DGA spokesperson at many film classes and seminars. A graduate of the DGA-Producer Assistant Directors Training Program, Ziesmer returned to the Program to teach its Setting Background Action seminar from 1987 and 1996. He has also been a mentor for the Artists Rights Foundation since 2000.
With over forty feature film credits, Jerry has assisted many of the DGA's great luminaries on some of the most challenging films of the past thirty years, including: Sydney Pollack on The Way We Were, Mark Rydell on Harry and Walter Go to New York and The River, Frances Ford Coppola on Apocalypse Now, Steven Spielberg on Close Encounters of the Third Kind and 1941, John Frankenheimer on Black Sunday, Mel Brooks on History of the World, Part I, John Badham on Blue Thunder, American Flyers and Short Circuit, John Huston on Annie, Brian DePalma on Scarface, Peter Bogdanovich on Illegally Yours, Martin Brest on Midnight Run, Alan Rudolph on Love at Large, and Cameron Crowe on Say Anything, Jerry Maguire and Almost Famous. Ziesmer is also the author of the book Ready When You Are Mr. Coppola, Mr. Spielberg, Mr. Crowe, which he dedicated to the Directors Guild and to the Assistant Directors Training Program.
Joseph Aceti joined the DGA in 1967 and has since enjoyed a career as a Sports Director that is second to none. He worked for all four major networks on every type of major sporting event including: The 1968, 1972, 1976, 1980 and 1992 Olympic games; the 1990, 1991 and 1992 World Series and numerous Playoff Series; World Figure Skating Championship from 1983-1990; the U.S. Open Tennis Tournament from 1984-87; NBA and NCAA basketball; NFL and collegiate football; Major League and Collegiate baseball; and 10 years of directing ABC's Wide World of Sports with some 300 shows as the coordinating director. With 80 major boxing matches to his credit, Aceti was also the guiding hand on broadcasts of some of the all-time greatest bouts, including: The Thriller in Manila, Ali vs. Spinks II, Cooney vs. Holmes and Hearns vs. Duran.
Donald Jacob joined the DGA in 1978 and was hired by CBS network as a staff Stage Manager soon thereafter. After being assigned as 1st SM on the soap opera The Young and The Restless, he continued to work on sports, news, variety, dramatic and game shows. In the early 80s, Jacob was appointed as the DGA's AD/SM/PA Council representative to the DGA Safety Committee. He was also a member of the AD/SM/PA Disciplinary Committee and served on the Mentor Committee, where he mentored countless new and existing members and participated in various committee-sponsored panels. Jacob served on the DGA's Computer Bulletin Board Committee, helping to establish digital communications between members and the Guild long before the World Wide Web.
Jacob has also been active in the past seven network pre-negotiations committees and has participated in many of the DGA's Freelance Live and Tape Television Agreement pre-negotiations meetings and recently served on the Network Negotiating Committee. His AD/SM/PA Council participation continues to this day and he is currently co-chair of the AD/SM/PA Technology Committee as well as the Tape Orientation Committee. Jacob has been nominated by the DGA Awards Committee for over a dozen DGA Directing team awards for The Young and The Restless, and won that honor in 1996. He has been nominated for eight Emmys and has won six.