Women directors underrepresented for the Oscars

Author Moonshot.news

Published on: 04/03/2024

There will be just one woman among the five nominated to get an Oscar for best director at the 96th Academy Awards organised in Hollywood by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences : Justine Triet, who directed Anatomy of a Fall. This isn’t new: Just eight women have been nominated for the best director award since 1928, Geena Davis Institute on Gender in Media notes in a report. 

Research suggests that female directors, alongside directors of colour of all genders, face biases in project selection, budgeting, and distribution — limiting their potential for success even when given the opportunity to helm a film, the Institute says. 

“These issues lead to a smaller pool of women in prestigious roles, or working on prestigious films, which are favoured (over comedies for example) by the academy members who vote on these matters.” 

The first woman to be nominated was Lina Wertmüller for Seven Beauties (1975), and it wasn’t until Kathryn Bigelow, with The Hurt Locker (2009), that a woman won the award. 

“Although opportunities are expanding, for decades women have faced exclusion, discrimination, and harassment in the entertainment industry, which hampers their access and career potential.” 

“These issues lead to a smaller pool of women in prestigious roles, or working on prestigious films, which are favoured (over comedies for example) by the academy members who vote on these matters.” 

The Institute’s summary of 96 years of Oscars data on best director, best original screenplay, and best adapted screenplay::

1. A woman has been nominated for best director nine times in Oscars® history, and women have only won three times.
2. Sixty-two films nominated for best original screenplay were written or co-written by a woman, which is just 14.9% of all films nominated for the award. Wins have gone to films written or co-written by a woman only eight times.
3. Seventy-five films nominated for best adapted screenplay were written or co-written by a woman, which is 15.8% of all films nominated for the award. Of the 74 films nominated written or co-written by a woman, 10 won, which is 10.5% of all winners.

The Institute concludes that data shows growing inclusion of women in the gender-neutral categories but there is still a very long way to go toward gender parity. 

“And while our analysis only looked at gender differences, it is important that efforts to improve representation (and accolades) behind the scenes take an intersectional approach. For example, seven of the eight women who have been nominated for best director are white.”