Another year, another Best Director Oscars controversy. In a year with no shortage of incredible films from female directors, the Academy announced its 2020 Oscar nominations and not one woman was among the Best Director nominees. And as you might expect, just hours after the noms, this has already caused some outrage. Nominations presenter Issa Rae got the ball rolling about the snub, when she said, “Congratulations to those men” when the category was announced.
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While Lulu Wang (“The Farewell”), Alma Har’el (“Honey Boy”), Melina Matsoukas (“Queen & Slim”), Lorene Scafaria (“Hustlers”), and Marielle Heller (“A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood”) all turned in work that would have been worthy of a nomination, the big hope for female filmmakers this Oscars season was Greta Gerwig with her period drama “Little Women.” But yet, even though she’s already one of only five women to have landed a Best Director nomination, Gerwig was shut out of the race this year.
Speaking to Deadline, “Little Women” actresses Saoirse Ronan and Florence Pugh, along with producer Amy Pascal voiced their disappointment with the results of today’s nominations.
“I’m really happy that the Academy recognized [Gerwig] for Adapted Screenplay and Picture, and I feel like if you’ve been nominated for Best Picture, you have essentially been nominated for Best Director,” Ronan said. “But to me, Greta, since she started, has made two perfect films, and I hope when she makes her next perfect movie, she gets recognized for everything, because I think she’s one of the most important filmmakers of our time.”
Pugh called the snub “a big blow” and said, “I think everybody’s angry and quite rightly so. I can’t believe it’s happened again, but I don’t really know how to solve it. I don’t know what the answer is, other than we’re talking about it.”
Producer Amy Pascal commented that she’s “incredibly disappointed about [the directing snub] because she really deserved it.”
As mentioned, Gerwig is already one of five women in the history of the Academy Awards to land a nom. She did it two years ago with “Lady Bird.” The other women include Lina Wertmüller (“Seven Beauties”), Jane Campion (“The Piano”), Kathryn Bigelow (“The Hurt Locker”), and Sofia Coppola (“Lost in Translation”). And out of those five women, only Bigelow has won.
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One glance at social media shows just how controversial the nominations were today, with many female journalists and film fans upset that Gerwig (or any of the other women mentioned at the beginning) were nominated.
— Dave Itzkoff (@ditzkoff) January 13, 2020
“Congratulations to those men.” – Issa Rae introducing the Best Director category is a MOOD. #OscarNoms pic.twitter.com/ihxnw0E6VJ
— Kathleen Newman-Bremang (@KathleenNB) January 13, 2020