Golden Globe Awards 2020 — Where Are The Women?
All Five Nominations For Best Director Category Are Men
Here are the nominees of the Best Director category in the upcoming Golden Globe Awards:
Bong Joon Ho, “Parasite”
Sam Mendes, “1917”
Todd Phillips, “Joker”
Martin Scorsese, “The Irishman”
Quentin Tarantino, “Once Upon a Time … in Hollywood”
Where are the women?
Year after year, every award ceremony comes under fire for their lack of representation. Over the past few years, a lot has been achieved in terms of nomination parity. But considering the lack of opportunities for women (compared to men), this all-male nomination fever quells every female director’s dreams.
In a year where a record number of hit movies directed by women came out, from “Little Women” to “The Farewell,” the Golden Globes once again nominated five men in the best-directing category.
While it is not shocking, in the 77-year-history of the Golden Globes only five women have been recognized for directing. Of this, only one woman has won the Golden Globe. Barbra Streisand, in 1984, for making “Yentl.” Streisand was nominated again as director in 1992 for “The Prince of Tides.”
Some of the other women nominees include Jane Campion (in 1994 for “The Piano”); Sofia Coppola (in 2004 for “Lost in Translation”); Kathryn Bigelow (in 2010 for “The Hurt Locker” and 2013 for “Zero Dark Thirty”); and Ava DuVernay (in 2015 for “Selma”).
Women who made films this year
Alma Har’el — Honey Boy
Lulu Wang — The Farewell
Mati Diop — Atlantis
Greta Gerwig — Litte Women
Olivia Wilde — Booksmart
Lorene Scafaria — Hustlers
Marielle Heller — A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood
Melina Matsoukas — Queen and Slim
Chinonye Chukwu — Clemency
Céline Sciamma — Portrait of a Lady on Fire
None made it to the best director category.
Some reactions from filmmakers, activists
Every award ceremony without women is a missed opportunity for the fraternity
Golden Globes nominations are known to be voted by around 100 people who are members of the HFPA (Hollywood Foreign Press Association). These people have a say in who gets nominated for the Oscar too. If this were true, this all-male nomination automatically cuts women out of the Oscar race. What a shame!
Given how Greta Gerwig was nominated last year for the Oscars (she is only the 5th ever female nominee), some experts were hopeful she would make the nomination for Little Women this year. The film landed several nominations, including best actress for Saoirse Ronan, but not the best director.
While the representation of women is bleak, the representation of women of color is worse. The fact that Ava DuVernay’s hit Netflix limited series “When They See Us” failed to land a single nod is disappointing. With every award ceremony, women filmmakers and activists realise that their fight for equality never ends. With this nomination announcement, I shudder to think about what the Oscar’s is going to look like.
Vaishnavi is a writer, self-taught filmmaker among other things. You can read all of her work by signing up for her newsletter.
