By Lisa Richwine
LOS ANGELES, March 12 (Reuters) – Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert, the filmmakers who brought to life the off-kilter action-adventure movie “Everything Everywhere All at Once,” won the Academy Award on Sunday for best director.
It was the first Oscar for Kwan and Scheinert, who became friends in college and are known professionally as the Daniels.
The pair broke movie conventions with “Everything Everywhere,” spinning a chaotic tale about a stressed-out laundromat owner, her increasingly distant family and a frumpy tax agent across a multiple dimensions.
One universe featured people with hot dogs for fingers. Another portrayed mother and daughter conversing as rocks. Plastic googly eyes and a giant bagel also play major roles.
The characters battle through various scenarios in scenes inspired by kung fu movies, with the fate of the multiverse hinging on their actions.
Kwan and Scheinert said they wanted to surprise audiences as they told a drama about a Chinese American family and make people think about modern-day living with seemingly infinite information and choices.
The pair’s previous project, 2016 film “Swiss Army Man,” also was unorthodox. It starred Harry Potter actor Daniel Radcliffe as a farting corpse, the only companion for a man stranded on a deserted island.
Prior to their movie careers, Kwan and Scheinert, both 35, directed music videos for artists including DJ Snake and Jack Johnson.
On Sunday, the duo beat celebrated filmmaker Steven Spielberg, “Banshees of Inisherin” director Martin McDonagh and others who were nominated for the directing prize.
(Reporting by Lisa Richwine; Editing by Jonathan Oatis)
