The 95th Academy Awards Race: Best Director

| March 10, 2023

The nominees are . . .
• Todd Field for Tár
• Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert for Everything Everywhere All At Once 
• Martin McDonagh for The Banshees of Inisherin
• Ruben Östlund for Triangle of Sadness
• Steven Spielberg for The Fabelmans

The year’s race for Best Director will likely tip with the voter’s mood.  There is an ample reason to believe that the members of the directors guild could heir on the side of sentimentality.  Most directors working right now grew up on the work of Steven Spielberg and it was hard not to be moved by his semi-autobiographical retelling of his childhood with The Fabelmans.

But recent events sway this race in another direction, that of the two Daniels – Daniel Kwan and Scheinert who (like it or not) created this year’s most original film – i.e. one that wasn’t a sequel or a reboot – with the multiverse adventure Everything Everywhere All At Once.  The film is currently the frontrunner for Best Picture and it is reasonable to think that this duo could follow.  If they win, they’ll be the first double-up Best Director winners since 

Best Director duos don’t get nominated very often.  It has only happened three other times, with Warren Beatty and Buck Henry for Heaven Can Wait back in 1980 and Joel and Ethan Coen for True Grit back in 2011 and the only winners being Jerome Robbins and Robert Wise for West Side Story back in 1962.  And given that the Daniels’ recently won the DGA award (voted on by the same folks who pick the Oscars) they are on track to make history.

About the Author:

Jerry Roberts is a film critic and operator of two websites, Armchair Cinema and Armchair Oscars.
Filed in: The Oscar Nominees
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