 In addition, "Executive Suite" earned Wise a Best Director nomination from the Motion Picture Academy, the Venice Film Festival, and the Director's Guild of America.The film was awarded Special Jury Prize at the Venice Film Festival and the British Academy of Film and Television Arts nominated it for Best Film.Other Wise-directed films from the 1950s include "Somebody Up There Likes Me" (1956), a portrait of boxer Rocky Graziano, starring Paul Newman; Wise's first overt comedy, "Something for the Birds" (1952); the action comedy "Destination Gobi" (1953); and "The Desert Rats" (1953), a more traditional war film.