Oscars 2023: Academy does not nominate a director
Sarah Polley’s “Women Talking” was nominated for Best Picture, but she – and other women directors – were eliminated from the Best Director race.
Following last year’s record-breaking Best Director win for Jane Campion, who became just the third woman to win the Oscar for The Hurt Locker alongside Chloé Zhao (2021’s ‘Nomadland’) and Kathryn Bigelow (2009’s ‘The Hurt Locker’). Best Director won. – There were no women nominated in the Best Director category in the 2023 Oscar nominations. Instead, this year’s Best Director race will see Martin McDonagh, Dan Kwan and Daniel Scheinert, Steven Spielberg, Todd Field and Ruben Östlund fighting for the honor.
And while Sarah Polley missed out on a Best Director nomination for her “Women Talking,” Miriam Toews’ adaptation earned her a nomination for Best Adapted Screenplay, while the film itself is the only female-directed feature film to be screened in the list of 10 films appears the nominee for the best picture. Last year, CODA filmmaker Sian Heder missed out on a Best Director award, though the film eventually won Best Picture.
Other female directors competing for Best Director who were left out on the morning of the nomination include The Woman King director Gina Prince-Bythewood and first-time feature filmmaker Charlotte Wells (whose Aftersun has proved a favorite with critics groups has and other smaller bodies).
In the 94-year history of the Academy Awards, only seven women have been nominated for best director: Lina Wertmüller (1976’s Seven Beauties), Sofia Coppola (2003’s Lost in Translation), Greta Gerwig (‘Lady Bird’ from from 2017), Emerald Fennell (from 2020’s “Promising Young Woman”), Bigelow, Zhao and Campion. The filmmaker of The Power of Dogs is also the only woman to have been nominated twice for the honor.
In 2020, the Academy announced nominations for the first time two Women in the category, with Zhao winning both Best Director (making her the second woman to win the award after Bigelow) and Best Picture for her “Nomandland,” while Fennell shared the statuette for Best Original Screenplay took home.
Elsewhere in the 2023 nomination pool, female directors did not fare much better, with no female filmmakers nominated for Best International Film and only two nominated in the Best Documentary race: Laura Poitras’ awards juggernaut All the Beauty and the Bloodshed and Sara Dosa’s Sundance favorite “Fire of Love”. In the race for best animated feature, Turning Red filmmaker Domee Shi was the only director whose film was nominated. (Curiously, these are the exact same numbers as the 2022 nominations.)
On the writers’ side, two women were nominated for Best Adapted Screenplay — Polley for her “Women Talking” and “All Quiet on the Western Front” co-writer Lesley Paterson — though no women made it into the Best Original Screenplay race . Polley was previously nominated in the same category in 2008 for her adaptation of Away From Her.
Winners will be announced at the 95th Academy Awards taking place on Sunday, March 12th at the Dolby Theater in Los Angeles. Jimmy Kimmel will return as presenter for a third year with the television show continuing ABC.com, Hulu Live TV and YouTubeTV in addition to broadcast. Check out the full list of this morning’s nominations here.
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https://www.indiewire.com/2023/01/oscars-2023-no-women-best-director-1234803237/ Oscars 2023: Academy does not nominate a director
