It’s an all-male field competing for Best Director at the Golden Globes again.
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Boon Joon-ho (“Parasite”), Sam Mendes (“1917”), Martin Scorsese (“The Irishman”), Quentin Tarantino (“Once Upon a Time… in Hollywood”) and Todd Phillips (“Joker”) are in the running as the Best Director nominees for the 2020 awards show, airing Sunday night.
The all-male list of nominees comes just two years after Natalie Portman stood on stage to present the Best Director award and directly called out the Hollywood Foreign Press Association for not nominating any women in the category.
In the history of the Golden Globes, only five women have been nominated for Best Director.
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Ahead of the awards being handed out, Time’s Up Foundation president and CEO Tina Tchen called out the Globes for the lack of women nominated in the category.
“Even at this year’s Golden Globes, which honoured so many talented women in our community, there’s not a single best director nominee who is a woman, despite a record number of women-directed films in the past year,” Tchen said in a statement. “As today’s Golden Globes goes to show, women – and especially women of color – continue to be pushed to the sidelines by a system that holds women back, onscreen and off.
“The omission of women isn’t just a Golden Globes problem – it is an industry-wide crisis, and it’s unacceptable,” she continued. “Time’s Up will continue to fight until talented female creators and artists get the opportunities and recognition they deserve.”
“Bombshell” actress Charlize Theron has also spoken out against the lack of female nominees.
“It’s tough. It’s really, really tough,” she told the Los Angeles Times. “And I think it gets really frustrating when we have to remember that women directors, especially, are just trying to get their numbers up. They represent 10% of our directors in the industry, and when you have a good year like we had this year with such great work, it is incredibly frustrating.”
“No woman wants to get nominated because it’s the right thing to do. It’s really, really ridiculous. It’s not cool. It’s really hard, and I think it’s unfair, and it’s why we can’t stop this fight. We gotta keep making noise until we’re heard and these stories get recognized,” she continued, adding, “I do still feel strongly about this: Saying there needs to be more opportunities for women does not necessarily negate what it means for men to be part of our storytelling as well.”
“I believe women should have more opportunities, but I don’t want to believe that women are the only ones who can tell women’s stories and men can only tell men’s stories. I don’t think Ava DuVernay would be happy about that. She makes movies about the acquitted Central Park Five,” Theron added.
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Theron wasn’t the only star speaking out. Actress and director Eva Longoria shared her suggestion for how the industry needs to change to be more recognition of female directors at while at the Women in Entertainment 2019 event.
“You don’t want to care about the awards but it is the metric system of our industry,” she tells The Hollywood Reporter, highlighting the work film festivals are doing in terms of gender equality. “We need to change the consciousness of people at the executive levels.”
“Honey Boy” director Alma Har-el directly called out the HFPA on Twitter for the lack of women among the nominees.
Rebecca Goldman, chief operating officer at the TIME’S UP Foundation, released a statement to ET Canada on the lack of female directing nominees.
“Who directs feature films matters. It affects what stories are told – and how – with far-reaching implications for women across the film industry and our broader society. That’s why TIME’S UP Entertainment – in partnership with Stacy Smith, Tessa Thompson, and many others – launched the 4 Percent Challenge, asking individuals and companies to commit to a film led by a female director in the next 18 months,” she wrote.
“This year, there have been twice as many women-led features than ever, with more films by female directors on the way. And yet, as today’s nominations show, women – and especially women of color – continue to be pushed to the sidelines by a system that holds women back, onscreen and off,” continuing, “The omission of women isn’t just a Golden Globes problem – it is an industry-wide crisis, and it’s unacceptable. TIME’S UP will continue to fight until talented female directors get the opportunities and recognition they deserve.”
On Twitter, awards watchers called out the snub and referenced potential nominees like Greta Gerwig for “Little Women”, Marielle Heller for “A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood”, Lorene Scafaria for “Hustlers”, and Lulu Wang for “The Farewell”.
The 77th Golden Globes will air live Sunday, Jan. 5, starting at 8 p.m. ET/5 p.m. PT.
