Remember two years ago when Natalie Portman got on stage at the Golden Globes ceremony and called out the critics organization for its lack of female directors nominated in the Best Director category?
Well the Hollywood Foreign Press Association, the body that passes out the Globes in their annual ceremony, appears to have.
Today, when the group announced the nominees for their 2020 awards show to be held next month, not a single female director made it into the category. This is exceedingly frustrating in a year which saw such films as Greta Gerwig’s Little Women, Lulu Wang’s The Farewell, Marielle Heller’s A Beautiful Day In The Neighborhood, Olivia Wilde’s Booksmart, Lorene Scafaria’s Hustlers and Celine Sciamma’s Portrait Of A Lady On Fire all receive very glowing critical notices.
But let’s face it, the Globes don’t have a great track record when it comes to nominating female directors. The most recent female Best Director nominee was Ava DuVernay in 2014 for Selma. Prior to that only four other women – Kathryn Bigelow (2013, Zero Dark Thirty), Sofia Coppola (2004, Lost In Translation), Jane Campion (1994, The Piano), and Barbara Streisand (1984, Yentl and 1992, The Prince Of Tides) – have ever even earned a nomination. And Streisand would be the only one of these women to actually win a Globe, for Yentl.
Frustratingly, while these talented women don’t get nominations, others from their films often do. Heller’s work directing A Beautiful Day In The Neighborhood earned Tom Hanks an acting nomination, while Gerwig’s work with Saoirse Ronan and Wang’s work with Awkwafina helped clinch noms for those two actresses.
It is not that the Hollywood Foreign Press Association is resistant to change. This year marked the first time that the traditional networks were knocked out of the major television categories completely. But as a body, the HFPA needs to start giving more consideration to the female voices that are telling cinematic stories.
