OUTSTANDING DIRECTOR

Alice Diop for Saint Omer

Audrey Diwan for Happening

Daniel Kwan & Daniel Scheinert for Everything Everywhere All at Once

Gina Prince-Bythewood for The Woman King

Charlotte Wells for Aftersun

AND THE WINNER:

CHARLOTTE WELLS FOR AFTERSUN

This is the first win and second nomination for Charlotte Wells. She was also nominated this year for screenwriting Aftersun (2022).

I first heard about Aftersun after it's world premiere at the Cannes film festival and I was not to know that 6 months later I'd get the opportunity to see the film and immediately fall in love with it. The main reason for my love of this film comes from director/writer Charlotte Wells who has created such an exciting and fabulous debut feature film. I connected so hard with this film as it brought me instantly back to my youth and family holidays and how they could be both the greatest moment of a young child's life but also the most upsetting. This film got it so right and I give a lot of that credit to Wells who presented everything so honestly I almost thought this was a documented piece rather than a piece of fiction.

What I also appreciate about Wells direction is how perfectly blended the portable camera footage is blended with the film camera footage. It becomes an even greater memory piece when these filmed materials are put together to tell the story of this young father and daughter on their holiday to Greece. I am glad that many people have discovered and fallen in love with Wells' as I have and that those who love her work will continue to follow her career as I hope she makes more great films.