The decision by Dreamworks to send a promotional DVD to the Directors Guild of America, caught its rivals offguard and caused an uproar that required the DGA to respond to the situation.
Dreamworks sent its "Dreamgirls" DVD to the guild's 13,400 memeber to give director Bill Condon a better chance of being nominated for the DGA Award.
There is evidently a communication problem with this issure as the studios believed that the DGA didn't allow these screenings to be sent to them, whereas the DGA said they've never had a policy prohibiting the practice.
The guild said in a statement: "The DGA has determined that DVD screeners will not be mailed to members this year. We recognize that there has been confusion among studios and distributors regarding the guild's policies and wish to avoid any unfairness in the awards process. We regret any inconvenience this has caused."
With the move by Dreamworks, other studios were notified that they were able to do the same thing if they wanted, the problem was that some of them didn't receive notice until Monday and Tuesday and complained loudly about it being unfair to them.
In response the guild decided to close screenings for this year, and let the studios know that next year, at the 60th annual awards, studios can mail DVD screeners to the entire membership.
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