Golden Globes 2020: Female Directors Snubbed Completely Once Again

Golden Globes, nominate a female director challenge. 

Nominations for the 77th annual ceremony were unveiled on Monday, and much to Natalie Portman’s disdain not a single woman received a nod in the directing or writing categories.

The Hollywood Foreign Press Association, which selects the nominees for achievements in film and television over the past year, certainly wasn’t starved for female talent, but chose to honour an all-male group of directors ― Bong Joon Ho (Parasite), Sam Mendes (1917), Quentin Tarantino (Once Upon A Time In Hollywood), Martin Scorsese (The Irishman) and Todd Phillips (Joker).

Greta Gerwig, who helmed a critically-acclaimed and star-studded adaptation of Little Women, was perhaps the most surprising snub, as she seemed poised for a strong awards season showing after becoming just the fifth woman to be nominated for the Best Director Oscar last year.

“Do not look for justice in the awards system,” director Alma Har’el, who was considered a contender for Honey Boy, tweeted in response to the dearth of female nominations. “We are building a new world.”

Other hopefuls, including directors Lorene Scafaria (Hustlers), Lulu Wang (The Farewell), and Marielle Heller (A Beautiful Day In The Neighborhood), who was also ignored last year for the stellar Can You Ever Forgive Me? also had their Globes chances cut short, even though many of the female-directed films received nods in other categories.

For television, Ava DuVernay’s acclaimed When They See Us also received no nominations, despite a strong showing at the Emmys earlier this year. 

Last year’s field was similarly bleak, with directors like Karyn Kusama and Chloé Zhao failing to receive awards recognition. Even Natalie Portman’s memorable scolding of the Golden Globes for the “all-male nominees” when she presented the 2018 Best Director award failed to stir change. 

Like most awards shows, the Golden Globes has celebrated embarrassingly few women in the directing field over its 77-year history.

Barbara Streisand was the first woman to be nominated and win the award in 1984 for Yentl. Only four other women ― Jane Campion (The Piano), Sofia Coppola (Lost In Translation), Kathryn Bigelow (The Hurt Locker and Zero Dark Thirty) and the aforementioned Ava DuVernay (Selma)  ― have received nominations since.