La La Land wins award as directors criticise Trump travel ban

The director of film musical La La Land has won the top 
prize at the Directors Guild of America Awards ahead of
 the Oscars later this month.

Damien Chazelle, 32, said he aimed to "celebrate the act of
dreaming".

He and many other directors also addressed President 
Donald Trump's travel ban in their speeches.

Mr Chazelle praised Iranian director Asghar Farhadi, who 
has said he will not now attend the Oscars and said 
excluding filmmakers was "anti-art".

He said Mr Farhadi - whose film The Salesman is 
nominated for an Oscar - came from "a country my government tells me I shouldn't be in dialogue with".

Iran is one of the seven mainly-Muslim countries affected
 by President Trump's order, which has been temporarily suspended by a federal court judge.

Last month La La Land broke the record for the most 
Golden Globe Awards, winning seven prizes.

Meanwhile Mexican director Alejandro Inarritu, who won
 an award last year for The Revenant, called the US political situation "a bad remake of one of the worst stories of the
 last century".

Other winners at the ceremony included Garth Davis for the film Lion.

It tells the true story of an Indian man who was lost as a five-
year-old and 25 years later used Google Earth to retrace his
steps to his hometown and his birthmother, not knowing the
name of either.

The film had given some refugees the courage to find their
families, he said.

The ceremony also saw Sir Ridley Scott, director of films
including Alien, Blade Runner and Gladiator, receive the 
35th Directors Guild Lifetime Achievement Award.