The Golden Globe nominations were released on Monday, delivering one of the least woke lineups yet between the nomination of controversial film “Joker” for Best Picture and the snubbing of several female directors.
“No female directors were nominated by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association for the 77th Golden Globe Awards,” reports The Hollywood Reporter (THR).
The list of nominees for Best Director includes:
- Martin Scorsese for “The Irishman”
- Sam Mendes for “1917”
- Todd Phillips for “Joker”
- Quentin Tarantino for “Once Upon A Time In Hollywood”
- Bong Joon-ho for “Parasite”
The lady directors not included this year that some believed were snubbed by the Hollywood Foreign Press are:
- Lulu Wang for “The Farewell”
- Lorene Scafaria for “Hustlers”
- Greta Gerwig for “Little Women”
- Marielle Heller for “A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood”
- Olivia Wilde for “Booksmart”
According to THR, no female director has been nominated for the top prize since Ava Duvernay in 2015 for “Selma.” Since then, the lack of female directors represented every year has prompted some A-list talent to speak out. In 2018, as Natalie Portman announced the nominees for Best Director, she prefaced her intro by saying, “and here are all the male nominees.”
“The trend continued in 2019 when no female directors were nominated in the category. Alfonso Cuarón ultimately took home the honor in the all-male category for ‘Roma,’ continued THR. “Barbra Streisand remains the only woman to ever win the best director prize. She was the first female director to be nominated and won in 1984 for ‘Yentl,’ and was again nominated in 1992 for ‘The Prince of Tides.'”
People online have since been expressing outrage over the lack of lady directors nominated this year.
“This year was great for movies but awards season is looking terrible cause they’re leaving aside all of the great films that made the year great to recognize white male directors who are making the worst movies of their careers,” said one Twitter user.
“And so we have amazing female directors, resilient against the odds, triumphing artistically, telling new unique stories, and they never get recognized accordingly. meantime, all male directors need is a decent movie and they are heralded as geniuses,” said another user.
“The [Globes] noms just broke my heart. I didn’t want to care, but Finding the people of color is an unfruitful scavenger hunt. All white, male directors. Whoever nominates needs the bubble they occupy popped ASAP. WHERE IS WHEN THEY SEE US? Oh right, they don’t,” tweeted Logan Browning.
The biggest surprise of all is the presence of “Joker,” which earned for itself a Best Actor nomination (Joaquin Phoenix), Best Director nomination (Todd Phillips), and Best Picture nomination (Drama).
“Bombshell,” which chronicles Gretchen Carlson’s account of sexual harassment at the hands of former Fox News CEO Roger Ailes, received only an acting nomination for Charlize Theron, who portrayed Megyn Kelly.
Ava Duvernay’s Netflix series “When They See Us,” which chronicles the Central Park Five, also received no Golden Globe nominations, prompting severe backlash on social media.
“When they see us being snubbed by the Golden Globes is consistent with the way people can’t talk about our stories. It was ‘too hard to watch,’ yet it is our reality. Proud of [Ava] and the Exonerated 5. Never stop telling our stories,” said Aurora Perrineau.