‘Avengers: Endgame’ Directors Anthony and Joe Russo to Receive Directors of the Year Award at CinemaCon

Avengers: Endgame directors Anthony and Joe Russo will be honored as Directors of the Year at CinemaCon in Las Vegas, the annual convention announced Wednesday.

“From the very beginning with Captain America: The Winter Soldier, Anthony and Joe Russo have proven they have a story to tell and have brought the Marvel Cinematic Universe to levels others could only have dreamed of,” said Mitch Neuhauser, Managing Director of CinemaCon.

“With the impending release of Avengers: Endgame, they are sure to continue their critical and box office success as they thrill, surprise and entertain audiences around the globe.”

The Russos will be presented the special honor during the Big Screen Achievement Awards ceremony Thursday, April 4 at the Colosseum at Caesars Palace. Director of the Year was awarded to Black Panther‘s Ryan Coogler in 2018.

The brothers last steered Avengers: Infinity War to $2.04 billion worldwide, making it the highest-grossing superhero film of all time and the fourth biggest earner in history. Its domestic total of $678 million was second-biggest for 2018, behind only Marvel’s own Black Panther at a rare $700 million.

Endgame, which released its final trailer Thursday, is expected to be the biggest film of 2019 when it launches late April. The fourth Avengers is both sequel to Infinity War and the culmination of the first chapter of the shared Marvel Cinematic Universe.

“Our approach has always been … we look at the process, as with [screenwriters] [Christopher] Marcus and [Stephen] McFeely, it’s simply the same thing in the way that the Winter Soldier relates to Civil War, and the way that Civil War relates to Infinity War,” Joe Russo previously said of shooting two Avengers movies back-to-back.

“These two movies will also relate, there’s a narrative thread that is connecting these films, but at the same time, there’s an independence in terms of what the experience is or where the story goes. It isn’t a true two-parter, and I think the two-parter concept came back when Marvel decided they were going to culminate the MCU, it was going to be a two-movie deal. But as we developed the movie, in execution, it ended up being more of two singular expressions.”

The Russos next direct Cherry, reuniting them with Spider-Man star Tom Holland in their first directing gig outside Marvel since 2014.

CinemaCon, the official convention of the National Association of Theatre Owners, runs April 1—4 in Las Vegas, Nevada. Avengers: Endgame releases April 26.

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