Golden Globes 2020 Shut Out Female Filmmakers in 4 Major Film Categories
The Golden Globes have shut out female directors in four major categories, including Best Director, Best Screenplay, and both Best Motion Picture categories. It’s par for the course for the annual event, which has only ever nominated five women for Best Director in its 77-year history, with only Barbra Streisand (a two-time nominee) going home with a win for her “Yentl.”
The most recent female-directed film to earn a win in the heavy-hitting categories was Greta Gerwig’s lauded “Lady Bird,” which won the Best Motion Picture — Musical or Comedy statuette in 2018. The first-time filmmaker was not nominated for her directing and her film was the only one directed by a woman to earn a nod in those three major categories.
This year, two female directors did earn nods in the Best Foreign-Language Film category, including Lulu Wang’s “The Farewell” and Celine Sciamma’s “Portrait of a Lady on Fire.” In the 2019 race, the lone female filmmaker to crack the big ranks was “Capernaum” filmmaker Nadine Labaki in the Best Foreign-Language Film category. (She ultimately lost out to “Roma.”)
A number of female-directed films have already earned major awards buzz this season, including Gerwig’s “Little Women,” Lorene Scafaria’s “Hustlers,” Marielle Heller’s “A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood,” Alma Har’el’s “Honey Boy,” Melina Matsoukas’s “Queen & Slim,” and Kasi Lemmons’ “Harriet.”
Just last month, both Scafaria and Har’el were nominated for Best Director by the Film Independent Spirit Awards, which also recognized Chinonye Chukwu’s “Clemency” and Wang’s “The Farewell” as Best Feature contenders. (Chukwu was the sole female filmmaker to get a nod in the Best Screenplay category.)
When it comes to the Globes, it’s the same story as last year, writ even larger this time around — while female filmmakers were shut out of the Best Motion Picture and Best Director race last year (even big names like Heller, Debra Granik, Tamara Jenkins, and Lynne Ramsay), at least one of them made off with a Best Screenplay nod: Deborah Davis for her work on “The Favourite,” where she was credited alongside Tony McNamara.
The full list of nominated directors includes Martin Scorsese (“The Irishman”), Quentin Tarantino (“Once Upon a Time in Hollywood”), Bong Joon Ho (“Parasite”), Sam Mendes (“1917”), and Todd Phillips (“Joker”).
The 2020 Golden Globes will be hosted by Ricky Gervais. The awards ceremony takes place January 5, 2020. You can see the full list of film and television nominees right here.
