Everything Everywhere All At Once directors Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert won the Directors Guild of America (DGA) award for Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Theatrical Feature Film on Saturday (February 18), boosting their standing going into next month’s Oscars.
Kwan and Scheinert took the award for the first time, and after their first nominations, from an all-male field that included three other best director Oscar nominees: Todd Field for Tar, Martin Mc Donagh for The Banshees Of Inisherin and Steven Spielberg, a three-time DGA award winner and 13-time nominee, for The Fablemans.
Winners in the DGA feature film directing award have won the Oscar for best director in only eight of the last 74. Last year, Jane Campion followed her DGA award for The Power Of The Dog with the Oscar and in 2021 Chloe Zhao scored the same double for Nomadland.
In the DGA Awards ceremony in Beverly Hills the Guild’s award for a first-time feature went to Scottish filmmaker Charlotte Wells for Aftersun (financed by BBC Film, BFI and Screen Scotland, in association with Tango). Four of five first-time directing nominees for the DGA Awards were women.
Sara Dosa won the DGA Award for documentary-directing for Fire of Love. Four of the five films represented in the documentary category – Fire of Love, All That Breathes, All The Beauty And The Bloodshed and Navalny – have also been nominated for the documentary feature Oscar.
The DGA presented its award for directing drama series to Sam Levinson, for his Stand Like The Hummingbird episode Euphoria.
The Guild’s award for television movie or limited series direction went to Helen Shaver for the Who’s There episode of limited series Station Eleven.
Also presented during the DGA ceremony were three special awards.
Robert Fishman got the DGA’s Lifetime Achievement Award in television.
Mark Hansson won the Frank Capra Achievement award recognising an assistant producer manager or director.
Valdez flagg was awarded the Franklin J Schaffner Achievement award, which recognizes an associate director or stage manger.
