Women in Hollywood: BAFTA recognizes record number of women directors, but will the Oscars follow suit?

Nominees for the 2021 Oscars will be announced this coming Monday, March 15. A fairly conservative awards ceremony, the Academy Awards has always been criticized for its lack of diversity and exclusion of women filmmakers.

In its 93-year history, only five women have been nominated for Best Director, including Lina Wertmüller (Seven Beauties, 1977), Jane Campion (The Piano, 1994), Sofia Coppola (Lost In Translation, 2004), Kathryn Bigelow (The Hurt Locker, 2010) and, more recently, Greta Gerwig (Lady Bird, 2018). Only one woman has ever won: Bigelow in 2010.

Yes, you heard that right: One woman has won Best Director in in almost a century.

Any other year, Campion would have prevailed for The Piano — a haunting film among my favorites — but she had the misfortune of being up against Stephen Spielberg for Schindler’s List, who took home the prize. Same with Coppola’s mesmerizing stunner, Lost in Translation (a movie I choose to write a thesis on at Harvard; that’s how much I love that film), but Peter Jackson walked away with the prize for The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King.

You can read details of the full list here.

But really, one win in almost 100 years? And only five nominations, not one of which includes Barbara Streisand for Yentl (who, before this year, was the only woman to take home a Golden Globe for Best Director in the ceremony’s history).

No female directors were nominated last year. None.

With 2020 having been a banner year for female filmmakers — and believe me, there has been plenty of female talent before that record year — the Oscars Director category has been begging for an overhaul for quite some time.

Will the 2021 Oscars finally recognize women filmmakers?

The Golden Globes kickstart awards season, and the ceremony has already thrown down the gauntlet for righting this decades-long wrong. Prior to this year, five women had been nominated for Globes nods (including Streisand twice, for The Prince of Tides as well). \

This year, three very talented women turned the tide during a woefully outdated ceremony: Regina King (One Night in Miami), Emerald Fennell (Promising Young Woman) and the Best Director winner Chloé Zhao (Nomadland).

Zhao also won the nod last week (as well as Nomandland for Best Picture) at the Critics Choice Awards. Like the Globes, she was also one of three female nominees.

Now that we’re smack dab in the middle of awards season, several shows are following suit, with the British Academy Film Awards (BAFTA) doing one better and overwhelming the Best Director category with four women nominees. Out of the six nominees, the four female directors include Shannon Murphy (Babyteeth), Chloé Zhao (Nomadland), Jasmine Zbanic (Quo Vadis, Aida?) and Sarah Gavron (Rocks), ending a decade-long all-male streak.

In BAFTA’s 74 years, only 11 women have been nominated in this category, including those four. Here, again, Bigelow (The Hurt Locker) is BAFTA’s sole female director winner.

Two female directors have been nominated for the Directors Guild Awards as well, including Zhao and Fennell.

With the abundance of projects having been helmed by women over the last year, the category in this years’ awards ceremonies is reflecting this impressive trend. This begs the question if The Academy Awards will follow suit. Having won the Golden Globe a few weeks ago, Zhao’s name is sure to get a nod and is a shoo-in to win.

There were so many incredible films directed by women last year, they could fill the entire category. Each one of these ten directors profiled in Moviefone, deserve a shot at the prize.

Of course, the independent film festivals have been ahead of the curve by giving women their due. This year alone, over 50 percent of the projects featured at Sundance were directed by women. And they were great.

But the Oscars have been notoriously fickle about keeping up with the times. Monday’s announcement will signal a message to the entertainment community if it chooses to ignore the plethora of female talent or continue to be condemned for its lack of vision.

Oscar nominees are slated to be unveiled March 15. The Screen Actors Guild Awards is coming up April 4. The Directors Guild Awards winners will be announced April 10, with the BAFTA’s taking place the next day, April 11. The 93rd annual Academy Awards ceremony airs April 25.

Do you think the Oscars will do the right thing on Monday? Who would you like to see make the nominees list? Drop me a line with your thoughts. Who else would you like to see profiled in my Women in Hollywood series?