LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) - Taylor Hackford, director of movies including "Ray," "Dolores Claiborne" and "An Officer and a Gentleman," will succeed Michael Apted as president of the Directors Guild of America.
Hackford was chosen Saturday during the guild's biennial national convention at Directors Guild headquarters in Hollywood. Steven Soderbergh was re-elected national vice president, and Gilbert Cates was re-elected secretary-treasurer.
The 135 delegates on hand also elected members of a new national board of directors. The union represents more than 14,000 members.
After a year and a half of labor unrest, which included a four-month writers' strike and a protracted stand-off by the leading Hollywood actors' union, Hackford faces the challenge of navigating the next round of contract negotiations looming in 2011.
With new-media considerations dominating the previous round's contentious debates, that next round most likely will unfold as a battle over the digital future and how Hollywood's creative community should be compensated as content migrates to the Web.
Hackford took aim at Internet piracy in a statement after his victory. "We have to be aware of the challenges we're facing in protecting our work on the Internet," he said. "What's euphemistically called 'Internet piracy,' I choose to call by its true name, 'Internet theft.' It threatens the future of our economic lives: our employment, residuals and pension and health plans. Solutions won't come easy, but they must be found, if we are going to survive as professional filmmakers."
Apted served three consecutive two-year terms after he was elected to succeed Martha Coolidge in 2003.
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