Sarah Polley’s Away from Her swept the Directors Guild of Canada awards on Saturday in a lively ceremony that saw the her win best director and film while her husband, David Wharnsby, won the prize for picture editing for his work on her first feature.

In a poignant moment, Polley embraced her presenter and lead actor Gordon Pinsent, whose assured performance as a husband dealing with his wife’s Alzheimer’s disease was a major factor in the film’s success.

On stage, Polley praised the other nominees, in particular Clement Virgo, ‘who has been my friend and mentor since I was 16 years old.’ She also thanked Jane Tattersall and the late Tom Berner for their ‘selfless devotion’ to Canadian film and filmmakers.

The evening started with a bang when DGC president Alan Goluboff introduced the guild’s new CEO and executive director Brian Anthony. Recently the head of the Governor General’s Performing Arts Awards Foundation and formerly the chief of staff to the minister of communications, Anthony has been working in the cultural industries for over 30 years.

He told the packed audience of 500 industry professionals and colleagues that he would be ‘a ceaseless, tireless and fearless defender and promoter of the interests of DGC members.’

In an evening that mixed the old with the new, Pinsent hugged another of his directors, Don Haldane, whose 1963 film Drylanders was the first English-language feature produced by the National Film Board. The 92-year-old filmmaker was on hand to present the first Don Haldane Distinguished Service Award to Marilyn Stonehouse, the veteran production manager who recently produced the TV series Sue Thomas: F.B.Eye and Doc. Stonehouse’s film credits include David Cronenberg’s Spider, Crash and Naked Lunch and Daryl Duke’s Silent Partner.

Another of Pinsent’s ‘old school guys’ from CBC’s heyday in the 1950s, director Paul Almond, was the recipient of the DGC’s lifetime achievement award. A screening of clips from such distinguished Almond productions as Macbeth, starring a young Sean Connery; Julius Caesar, with William Shatner as Mark Antony; and Act of the Heart, starring Donald Sutherland and Geneviève Bujold, was a highlight of the evening.

Sturla Gunnarsson and Jerry Ciccoritti, veteran directors of a more recent vintage, split prizes for best TV movie or miniseries. Ciccoritti’s team on Dragon Boys won for best production, while Gunnarsson garnered the award as director for Above and Beyond. Slings and Arrows was voted the best TV drama, while Corner Gas won for best comedy. Stephen Surjik of Intelligence took the award for best directing on a TV episode, while best documentary went to Sharkwater. Team awards were given for the family TV movie/miniseries Me and Luke and Instant Star.

Sound editors Stephen Barden, Alex Bullick, Jill Purdy, Craig Henighan and Nelson Ferreira won for the visionary Darren Aronofsky feature The Fountain. Jonas Kuhnemann, Richard Calistan and Mark Beck took the same prize in the TV movie/miniseries category for In God’s Country, while Joe Mancuso, Dan Sexton, Matt Hussey and Richard Calistan won for an episode of ReGenesis.