Directors Guild to honour Jewison

Canadian filmmaker Norman Jewison is to receive a lifetime-achievement award from the Directors Guild of America (DGA) at its awards ceremony this January.

Jewison, who received the Irving Thalberg Award for lifetime achievement in 1999, directed films such as In the Heat of the Night, Fiddler on the Roof and Moonstruck.

Jewison, 83, was born in Toronto and worked for CBC-TV before joining CBS in New York and then moving into feature films.

He is also a founder of the Canadian Film Centre in Toronto and has produced films such as The Hurricane and January Man.

"He is an incredible filmmaker, whose calm, affable manner belies a ferocious creative fire within," said DGA president Taylor Hackford in announcing the award Tuesday.

"There are very few filmmakers whose body of work moves so fluidly between romantic comedy and political thriller, musical and satire, with an ease and an eloquence that few could hope to match."

Jewison has been nominated for three DGA Awards for The Russians Are Coming…The Russians Are Coming, In the Heat of the Night and A Soldier's Story.

He will be honoured Jan. 30 at the DGA awards gala in Los Angeles.