The winner for Best Director at the 2023 Oscars is a tight race between nominees from two movies, though one holds a crucial lead heading into the ceremony. The nominees for Best Director at 95th Academy Awards are Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert (better known as “the Daniels”) for Everything Everywhere All at Once, Steven Spielberg for The Fabelmans, Todd Field for Tár, Martin McDonagh for The Banshees of Inisherin, and Ruben Östlund for Triangle of Sadness. The category features four first-time nominees and one previous Best Director Oscar winner, which makes for an even more exciting competition.
The 2023 Oscars’ Best Director category has already come under fire for continuing a disappointing trend of all-male nominees, as Women Talking’s Sarah Polley, Aftersun’s Charlotte Wells, and The Woman King’s Gina Prince-Bythewood were snubbed for nominations. This year, each of the Best Director nominees also has their movie up for Best Picture at the Oscars, so the competition is certainly fierce. However, as the 95th Academy Award ceremony approaches, the success of Everything Everywhere All at Once’s directing team the Daniels throughout the awards season establishes them as the predicted Best Director winner at the 2023 Oscars.
Why The Daniels Are Favored To Win Best Director At The 2023 Oscars
Having helmed the film that is also predicted to win Best Picture and Best Actress at the 2023 Oscars, the Daniels being the Best Director race’s front-runner comes as no surprise. The Daniels created a masterpiece that is leading the 2023 Oscars with 11 nominations, with the directing duo also being up for Best Original Screenplay. In addition to the film’s incredible technical achievements, critically-acclaimed acting performances, and clever genre-bending screenplay, Everything Everywhere All at Once is one of the most widely popular movies among both audiences and critics that are up for big awards at the 2023 Oscars. As such, it would be remiss for the Daniels to not be awarded for these accomplishments.
The Daniels are also the predicted winners of Best Director at the 95th Academy Awards due to their success with various voting bodies throughout the awards season. In addition to numerous wins and nominations from critics’ circles, the creators of Best Picture nominee Everything Everywhere All at Once also have pending nominations in the Best Director category at the AACTA International Awards, Independent Spirit Awards, Directors Guild of America Awards, and the BAFTAs. The latter two awards will be the most significant indicators of the winner of Best Director at the 2023 Oscars, and with Spielberg out of the BAFTAs race, the Daniels’ odds are even greater.
Could (& Should) There Be An Upset In The Oscars 2023 Best Director Race?
Ahead of the awards season, it was predicted that Steven Spielberg would take home the Oscars’ 2023 award for Best Director for his semi-autobiographical film, but his snubbed nomination at the BAFTAs made his chances of accomplishing this far smaller. This crucial loss is arguably what sealed Everything Everywhere All at Once’s Daniels as the predicted Best Director winner at the Oscars, but Spielberg is still a key front-runner in the competition. Still, if there is an upset in play, The Fabelmans' Steven Spielberg is the most likely director to pick up the award, which would give him his third Best Director Oscar statuette.
Since Spielberg has already won the award twice and is tied with Martin Scorsese for the second-most-nominated director in the Oscars category, newcomers the Daniels are the nominees more deserving of the award this year. Spielberg’s emotional ode to filmmaking and his own familial upbringing will play well with the Academy, but the Daniels crafted a picture that would have a significant impact on the industry should it pick up key awards like Best Director. McDonagh, Field, and Östlund are also deserving of their nominations, but the Daniels should be the winners at the 2023 Oscars.