[1] The award is considered the Directors Guild's highest honor and its recipients are selected by the present and past presidents of the DGA.
[6][3][7] DGA president Jack Shea stated that, although Griffith was an influential and innovative filmmaker, he also "helped foster intolerable racial stereotypes.
"[8][9] Particularly Griffith's film The Birth of a Nation is criticized for its heroic portrayal of the Ku Klux Klan and its negative depiction of black people.
[6][10][3] The guild's decision to change the name of its highest honor caused controversy.
[11] While NAACP president Kweisi Mfume called it "the right thing to do" and stated that the award "should have never been given under the name of D. W. Griffith,"[6][3] the National Society of Film Critics criticized the name change in a statement, calling it "a depressing example of political correctness.