From “Project Hail Mary” to “La Bola Negra” and “You Can See Everything,” this awards season is dominated by director duos.
Javier Ambrossi and Javier Calvo, better known as Los Javis, are seen as locks for “La Bola Negra,” the Netflix-backed gay historical epic, while longtime collaborators Phil Lord and Chris Miller are also firmly in the Oscar conversation for their work on “Project Hail Mary.” Then there’s Emmy nominee Nathan Fielder teaming up with documentary-world wunderkind Lance Oppenheim on “You Can See Everything,” a less conventional contender, but one that could muscle itself into the race thanks to its box office success.
Expand the scope further, and there’s recent indie box office success “Wicker” from husband-and-wife filmmaking duo Alex Huston Fischer and Eleanor Wilson. Plus “Clarissa” from brothers Arie and Chuko Esiri, and “Mouse” from director couple Kelly O’Sullivan and Alex Thompson, which picked up a Gotham Best Feature nom.
That’s six different films in this year’s awards
That’s six different films in this year’s awards conversation, suggesting director duos are becoming more common in filmmaking overall. But in terms of Oscar recognition, only five films across the Academy Awards‘ 98-year history have had their filmmaker duos nominated for Best Director. More than one team nominated for Best Director this season would be a record.
So what makes director duos so rare at the Oscars? Much of it comes down to the Directors Guild of America. Keep in mind, Best Director nominations are determined by the contenders’ peers in the Directors Branch, so even though the DGA is a separate group with its own eligibility rules for the DGA Awards, the guild overlaps enough with the Academy to set the tone. The DGA also has a bylaw that states, “One Director to a Film.” The logic behind the rule, established in 1978, is to prevent anyone, especially producers, from delegating tasks to other members of a director’s team. Director duos can request a waiver, but they must prove they intend to be lifelong collaborators.
The “One Director to a Film” mentality is another major hurdle for “You Can See Everything” directors Fielder and Oppenheim in particular, as both filmmakers had established solo careers before teaming up. Meanwhile, the rest of the class of 2026 director duos have been collaborators from the start of their careers, with Los Javis and Lord and Miller, the two most viable Best Director candidates, even having shorthand nicknames within the industry. “You Can See Everything” has already been deemed ineligible for a Best Director nomination at the DGA Awards, because the category does not include documentaries.
Despite the hurdles they must overcome, director duos
Despite the hurdles they must overcome, director duos often go on to win Oscars if they secure a nomination. That was the case for “West Side Story” directors Robert Wise and Jerome Robbins in 1962, for “No Country for Old Men” directors Joel and Ethan Coen in 2008, and most recently for “Everything Everywhere All at Once” directors Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert (aka Daniels) in 2023.
Of the two director duos that fell short, one was the Coen Brothers again for “True Grit” in 2011, only three years after they won the Best Director Oscar. That makes “Heaven Can Wait” helmers Warren Beatty and Buck Henry the only director duo that didn’t win the Oscar the first time they were nominated as a pair. Henry and Beatty would never direct together again, and Beatty would win the Oscar for directing “Reds” three years after “Heaven Can Wait” came out in 1978.
So while there’s a tremendous barrier for entry, if any of the director duos in the awards mix this year are able to secure a Best Director nomination, history indicates they should probably have an acceptance speech ready.
