Veteran TV director David Nutter has been selected to receive the Directors Guild of America’s lifetime achievement award for distinguished achievement in directing. He will receive the honors at the 76th Annual DGA Awards ceremony on Saturday, February 10, 2024.
Nutter is only the sixth director to receive the recognition, following James Burrows, Robert Butler, Joe Pytka, Don Mischer and Robert A. Fishman.
“David has had a truly phenomenal directing career on so many of the most high-profile series in episodic television,” said DGA president Lesli Linka Glatter. “To quote the cover of our own DGA Quarterly, David is truly the ‘King of the Pilots.’ His passion, creativity, and mastery of the craft over his expansive career underscores exactly why David serves as an inspiration to fellow directors everywhere. On behalf of the Guild, I’m beyond thrilled to celebrate David’s talents and contributions to the art of directing.”
Glatter noted that Nutter’s credits included pilots for “The Time Traveler’s Wife,” “Deception,” “Containment,” “The Flash,” “Arrow,” “The Mentalist,” “Supernatural,” “Without a Trace,” “Smallville,” “Millennium” and “Roswell,” among many others. In total, Nutter directed 24 pilots, 21 of which were picked up to series.
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In 2015, Nutter won the DGA Award for outstanding directorial achievement in dramatic series for the “Game of Thrones” episode “Mother’s Mercy.” He has received six DGA Award nominations including “The Sopranos,” “Entourage,” “The Pacific” and “Game of Thrones.” He has won three Emmys for executive producing “Game of Thrones” in 2019; directing “Game of Thrones” in 2015 and in 2002 for “Band of Brothers.” He also earned four Emmy nominations for “The X-Files,” “The Sopranos,” “The Pacific” and “Game of Thrones.
“The DGA has always been my foundation, my shining light, my bulwark against the impediments that so often crop up in this industry,” Nutter said. “This is really a career pinnacle of sorts for me and validates what I’ve been doing to such a tremendous degree. Combined with the great support of my family, and my friends, and my fellow crew members and creatives, I can’t think of anything more gratifying than to receive this commendation.”
