Tom Kuntz poses with his DGA award for best commercial direction alongside his presenters, actors Lea Michele and Matthew Morrison. (Photo: DGA/Joe Coomber)

After three nominations, MJZ director Tom Kuntz picked up the prize for outstanding commercial direction at the Directors Guild of America Awards in Los Angeles on Saturday night. He was previously nominated in 2006 and 2008.

Kuntz won for a series of surreal comedy spots that included Careerbuilder.com "Tips", Skittles "Tailor", Old Spice "Scents for Gents" and Cadbury "Eyebrow Dance". "Those [spots] are probably my proudest moments of last year," he said. "Even though I didn't write them, I feel like they're mine. I feel like I birthed them even though I'm not the one who thought of them in the first place."

Kuntz beat out Park Pictures' Joaquin Baca-Asay, Anonymous Content's Garth Davis, Gorgeous Enterprises' Chris Palmer and fellow MJZ director Craig Gillespie for the prize. Following the ceremony, he and Baca-Asay threw a party at the Mandrake bar in LA for the commercial contingent.

The evening's top winner was filmmaker Kathryn Bigelow, who won the feature film award for The Hurt Locker, becoming the first woman in the DGA's history to claim the honor.

The film, an independently-financed war drama about a group of bomb disposal experts working in Baghdad, is now considered a front-runner for best picture and director honors at the Oscars. Nominations for the 82nd annual Academy Awards will be announced in Los Angeles tomorrow.

Last July, Boards spoke to Bigelow about The Hurt Locker and her return to the commercial fold in 2009 through RSA Films. Read the interview here.