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From a moment of support for women by Kristen Stewart to a touching acceptance speech by Dwayne Johnson, here were the best moments from the Variety 10 Directors to Watch & Creative Impact Awards.
Kristen Stewart gushes over female directors at Palm Springs film fest
The Variety 10 Directors to Watch & Creative Impact Awards brunch took place Sunday, Jan. 4, 2026, at the Parker Palm Springs in Palm Springs, Calif.
The star-studded Palm Springs International Film Festival celebrations continued Sunday, Jan. 4, as emerging directors and legendary filmmakers alike gathered at the Parker Palm Springs for the Variety 10 Directors to Watch and Creative Impact Awards.
This year’s Creative Impact Award honorees included “Frankenstein” director Guillermo del Toro (Creative Impact in Directing Award), “The Smashing Machine” star Dwayne Johnson (Creative Impact in Acting Award) and “One Battle After Another” star Teyana Taylor (Creative Impact in Breakthrough Performance Award).
Among the 10 Directors to Watch were Kristen Stewart (“The Chronology of Water”), Harry Lighton (“Pillion”) and Akinola Davies Jr. (“My Father’s Shadow”).
Here were our favorite moments from Sunday’s brunch.
Kristen Stewart gushes over Mona Fastvold, Lynne Ramsay
Academy Award nominee Stewart was one of Variety’s 10 Directors to Watch with her directorial debut, “The Chronology of Water.”
Among the many films that came out in 2025, she said Mona Fastvold’s “The Testament of Ann Lee” and Lynne Ramsay’s “Die My Love” as her favorites from female directors.
“Honestly, I think ‘The Testament of Ann Lee’ will go down as not just my favorite movie of this year, but top tippy top of films that have ever been made,” Stewart said. “I am (also) obsessed with ‘Die My Love,’ Lynn Ramsey has been somebody that I’ve coveted my whole life — she’s one of the reasons why I wanted to make the movie that I made.”
She continued, “I think it’s such a cool time to be watching women make movies because they’re not doing impressions of boys anymore. (‘Ann Lee’) came from a really deep impressionistic place, but it’s so specific. I think when you watch Amanda do what she does in that movie, it feels like it unlocks something buried, something so cathartic, I love that movie so much.”
Stewart added that she has some ideas when it comes to collaborating with Ramsay in the future.
Teyana Taylor jokingly calls herself a ‘Glade PlugIn’
Taylor received the Creative Impact in Breakthrough Performance Award Sunday, and she came prepared to dazzle the audience with plenty of jokes and snide comments.
The actress and singer has been working in Hollywood for 20 years, but this past year saw her reach new heights with her performance in Paul Thomas Anderson’s “One Battle After Another.” Thus far, she has received a number of best supporting actress awards.
“Being celebrated with a breakthrough feels a little ironic, but I’ll take it,” she said. “You make me feel young!”
In receiving an impact award, Taylor said she wouldn’t be standing where she is without the impact of others, especially her mother, who quit her job and became her manager when Taylor signed her first record deal. That sacrifice led to Taylor becoming the artist and mother that she is today, she said, and she shouted out her children who were in the crowd.
Teyana Taylor compares herself to a Glade PlugIn at Palm Springs event
The Variety 10 Directors to Watch & Creative Impact Awards brunch took place Sunday, Jan. 4, 2026, at the Parker Palm Springs in Palm Springs, Calif.
But the mother in her quickly came out, as she spotted her kids on their phones while she was delivering her speech. She started making faces at them and signaling that they wouldn’t hear the end of it. “This whole time they were bothering me when I was sitting down, then I finally get up here and it’s this,” as she proceeded to mimic being on a phone.
Among the biggest career moves that Taylor made in recent years was retiring from music and deciding to focus on her acting career. People told her she was being “impulsive and reactive,” but she felt “clausterphobic and boxed in.”
“Me, I’m like a Glade PlugIn,” she quipped. “Why only plug me in a bathroom when I can make the whole room smell good?”
She praised the many directors she has worked with thus far in her career, and called Anderson, “my twin,” the most impactful one.
Guillermo del Toro found religion through monster movies
No one loves a monster movie quite like del Toro, and that’s exactly how he fell in love with cinema. He received the Creative Impact in Director Award Sunday for his work on monster classic “Frankenstein.”
Although he was raised Catholic in Mexico, he said he found religion on a Sunday after church. A television station played monster movies “all day,” but the film that stood out the most was “Frankenstein.”
“The moment Boris Karloff crossed the threshold, I found Jesus for the first time,” del Toro said. Karloff’s daughter, Sara, was in the audience, who he shouted out.
In an impassioned speech, del Toro said “cinema is truth, and truth is cinema.” He also said it’s important to embrace failure.
“If you don’t know failure, if you’re not prepared to fail, you should know it is right next door to success. There are no numbers on the door,” the Academy Award winner said. “When you open that door, it’s either going to open the supermodel of your dreams or your mom in curlers.”
Guillermo del Toro talks origins of his love for ‘Frankenstein’
The Variety 10 Directors to Watch & Creative Impact Awards brunch took place Sunday, Jan. 4, 2026, at the Parker Palm Springs in Palm Springs, Calif.
Del Toro also called out the use of artificial intelligence in filmmaking and gave advice to the up-and-coming directors in the room.
“In a time when people tell you art is not important, that is always the prelude of fascism. When they tell you it doesn’t matter, when they tell you a f—— app can do art, you say, ‘Well, if it’s that easy and it is not important, why the f— do they want it so bad?'” he said. “The answer is because they think they can debase everything that makes us a little better, a little more human, and that, in my book and my life, are the monsters.”
Dwayne Johnson honors late friends, shares Guillermo del Toro story
Johnson took on a dramatic role as MMA fighter Mark Kerr in “The Smashing Machine,” and it earned him the Creative Impact in Acting Award.
He showed gratitude for taking on Kerr’s story and said he’s glad the film’s subject was still alive to see it, as the fighter struggled with pressures that led to addiction and overdosing twice (which was depicted in the film). Johnson shared that over the past decade, he has lost 15 friends to addiction and suicide.
“I was rocked by that number, and most recently, a few years ago, one of my best friends decided to check out, couldn’t take that pressure. But there’s still beauty and grace, I think, in that loss,” Johnson said. “This role gave me this greater level of empathy and care and realization that … hey, you know who’s really going through something right now? Everybody.”
He also shared a sweet story of the first time he met del Toro, which was during the Golden Globes when the director was nominated for “The Shape of Water.” Johnson said he somehow landed a seat at del Toro’s table that night, and “that man was so nice to me, he was so kind to me.”
Dwayne Johnson shares Guillermo del Toro story at Palm Springs event
The Variety 10 Directors to Watch & Creative Impact Awards brunch took place Sunday, Jan. 4, 2026, at the Parker Palm Springs in Palm Springs, Calif.
“He gets up, he wins, he gives this beautiful speech, he comes back, and the entire table is up and they’re waiting to greet Guillermo,” Johnson said. “He comes and the first person he sees is me and he gives me the biggest hug, and before he hugs me, he goes, ‘We did it!’ And I’m like, ‘We did do it!'”
At the end of his speech, Johnson dedicated his award to “everyone who is going through it and fighting,” and he hopes everyone can say in 2026, “We did it!”
Ema Sasic covers entertainment and health in the Coachella Valley. Reach her at ema.sasic@desertsun.com or on Twitter @ema_sasic.