A24’s “Everything Everywhere All at Once” can now add another achievement to its long list of honors as its directors, Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert – collectively known as the Daniels – took home the Directors Guild of America’s (DGA) top award over the weekend.
Kwan and Scheinert beat out legendary director Steven Spielberg (“The Fabelmans”) during the Saturday night award ceremony at the Beverly Hilton in Beverly Hills, California, after winning the DGA’s top award for Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Theatrical Feature Film.
This was the first time the Daniels had been nominated for a DGA award.
Other nominees included Todd Field (“Tár”), Joseph Kosinski (“Top Gun: Maverick”) and Martin McDonagh (“The Banshees of Inisherin”).
In their acceptance speech, Kwan thanked “Everything Everywhere All at Once” star Michelle Yeoh for her performance in the movie that landed her an Academy Awards nomination.
Kwan also thanked A24, saying, “Films like this oftentimes don’t get a launchpad, [but] you are the craziest studio, and you always do somehow take risks on movies like ours. So, thank you.”
In addition to Yeoh and A24, Kwan thanked his fellow nominees in his closing remarks, noting that they inspire him.
Every time we break bread or we get to share a stage with each other, I leave so inspired, and it’s just a beautiful reminder that even the best filmmakers in this industry, even the legends in this industry, deep down, are just kids who are excited to be making movies. Thank you so much for that reminder.
Meanwhile, Scheinert thanked Kwan and expressed how grateful he was while working with his co-director.
“Thank you for putting up with me when I asked to make our movie weirder, and thank you for making our movie so much braver and more vulnerable,” Scheinert said. “What an honor.”
Given their recent DGA win, the Daniels might have an Academy Award win to look forward to in the near future.
Directors who have won the DGA’s top award are likely to win at the Academy Awards as well, based on past winners over the decades.
According to ABC News, there have only been 10 winners of DGA’s top award who did not go on to win an Academy Award in the past 75 years, with the most recent inconsistency being Sam Mendes (“1917”). In 2020, Mendes won DGA’s top award but lost to Bong Joon-ho (“Parasite”) for Best Director at the 92nd Academy Awards.
With their recent win, Kwan and Scheinert have become the third director duo to win the DGA’s top award. They were preceded by Robert Wise and Jerome Robbins (“West Side Story”) in 1961 and Joel Coen and Ethan Coen (“No Country for Old Men”) in 2007.
