Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert won the Best Director award for Everything Everywhere at the Same Time, delivered early this Sunday in Los Angeles by the Guild of North American Directors. Also Charlotte Wells, debut director in aftersunand Sara Dosa, documentary filmmaker from Volcano: A Love Story, were distinguished in this antechamber for the Oscars. On television, awards to Sam Levinson for an episode of euphoria in the drama category and to Bill Hader for the chapter 71ON in barry.
In a ceremony broadcast only on streaming and with director Judd Apatow as host (a position he occupied for the fourth time in these awards given by the union of North American directors), another envelope was opened in the antechamber for the Oscars. It is a relative barometer, given that if only directors who are members of the Hollywood Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences vote for the selection of the five nominees each year — which in 2023 are all men, as they were at the DGA awards, acronym in English directors’ guild original — all Academy members can submit their choice for any category.
Even so, it is a media signal for the film most nominated for the Oscars, which with 11 mentions and the admiration of the public and critics, competes alongside names like Steven Spielberg and titles like tarby Todd Field, or Top Gun: Maverick.
The men of the night were then the two Daniels, Kwan and Scheinert, authors of a film about fractured realities and times, starring Michelle Yeoh (the first actress of Asian origin nominated for the Oscar for Best Actress). “This has been an incredible year for our little film which, who knows how, continues to make its way”, said Kwan when accepting the award. Thanking Yeoh and the A24 studio, an increasingly relevant mark of a certain North American cinema situated between the independent and the adult (that is, not only authorial but also not blockbuster), Kwan noted, “Movies like these often don’t get a launching pad and you guys are the craziest studio and always find ways to take a risk on movies like ours.”
Everything Everywhere at the Same Time is currently available on the video service on demand TVCine+ in Portugal, having also been recently shown by thematic channels.
Already Volcano: A Love Story, the National Geographic documentary about the couple of volcanologists Katia and Maurice Krafft, is on the platform of streaming Disney+ and is also nominated for the Oscar for Best Documentary. A testament to the life and death of the Kraffts, passionate about volcanoes and ardent documentarians of her work, earned Sara Dosa her peer award. “Katia and Maurice literally died for their films. Volcano: A Love Story it’s not about their deaths, it’s about how they lived for their love and volcanoes”, said the director.
The other woman of the night was Charlotte Wells, whose debut feature aftersun (which earned leading man Paul Mescal an Oscar nomination for Best Actor) was recognized by American directors as the best directing of a first film. Aftersun premiered on the 26th of January in Portugal and is on display in Lisbon, Porto and Setúbal.
On television, the highlight was Bill Hader, the actor-director whose somewhat dark comedy won him the award for directing the episode 71ONHelen Shaver for the episode Who’s There? from the limited series Station Eleven and Sam Levinson for the episode Stand Still Like the Hummingbird in euphoria — all series are from HBO and are available in Portugal on the streaming platform streaming HBO Max.
This Sunday night, in London, the British BAFTA awards are handed out, which also share many nominees with the Oscars, that goal of the annual film awards season. Of these, the most nominated (14) is the Netflix movie To the West Nothing Newby the German Edward Berger, followed (in pure arithmetic) by the ten British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) nominations for The Spirits of Inisherinby Martin McDonagh, Everything Everywhere at the Same Time, elvisby Baz Luhrmann, and tar, by Todd Field. Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert are also nominated for the Best Director award.