Oscars Ignore Women Directors, Again
by EG
Martin Scorsese made another movie about gangsters this year, and Quentin Tarantino made another violent movie about murdering. That, as is to be expected, is what got the Oscars excited for their annual nominations. Movies made by women, not so much. Read on for details.
Women are once again left out in the best director category for the 2020 Oscars.
Bong Joon Ho for Parasite, Sam Mendes for 1917, Todd Phillips for Joker, Martin Scorsese for The Irishman and Quentin Tarantino for Once Upon a Time in Hollywood will compete in the best director.
"Congratulations to those men," presenter Issa Rae said after reading the nominees.
For the 2020 ceremony, Lulu Wang (The Farewell), Greta Gerwig (Little Women), Marielle Heller (A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood), Lorene Scafaria (Hustlers) and Alma Har'el (Honey Boy) were all notably left out.
If Gerwig had been nominated, the nod in the category would have solidified her as the first woman to be nominated for directing twice. She was previously up in the category in 2018 for Lady Bird. Additionally, Wang would have become the first woman of Asian descent to be nominated.
Only five women had been nominated for the directing Oscar: Kathryn Bigelow (The Hurt Locker), Lina Wertmuller (Seven Beauties), Jane Campion (The Piano), Sofia Coppola (Lost in Translation) and Gerwig. In 2010, Bigelow became the first and only female director to win in the category.
The nomination announcement follows recent criticism of the Golden Globes for excluding women in the directing category. Two years ago, Golden Globes presenter Natalie Portman took a jab on live TV at the Hollywood Foreign Press Association when she announced, "Here are the all-male nominees" for director. The trend of missing female directors continued at the Golden Globes when women continued to not be honored in the category.
Barbra Streisand remains the only woman to ever win the Golden Globes best director prize. She was the first female director to be nominated and won in 1984 for Yentl, and was again nominated in 1992 for The Prince of Tides. Campion, Coppola, Bigelow and Ava DuVernay are the only other female directors to be nominated in the category, with DuVernay's 2015 nod for Selma being the most recent.
Get the rest of the story at The Hollywood Reporter.
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