Female Filmmakers Set Oscar Nomination Record In Best Picture Category

Three female directors saw their movies nab Best Picture nominations Tuesday morning, the first time that’s occurred in Oscar’s 96-year history: Celine Song with Past Lives, Great Gerwig with Barbie and Justine Triet with Anatomy of a Fall.

For a fifth consecutive year, at least one of the Best Picture nominees was directed by a woman.

In the directing category, Triet becomes the ninth woman to be nominated in the category. She is the only female filmmaker this year, joined by Martin Scorsese (Killers of the Flower Moon), Christopher Nolan (Oppenheimer), Yorgos Lanthimos (Poor Things) and Jonathan Glazer (The Zone of Interest).

Previously, only four years counted two Best Picture noms from female filmmakers: 2009 for Lone Scherfig’s An Education and Kathryn Bigelow’s The Hurt Locker, 2010 for Lisa Cholodenko’s The Kids Are All Right and Debra Granik’s Winter’s Bone, 2020 with Chloé Zhao’s Nomadland and Emerald Fennell’s Promising Young Woman, and 2021 with Siân Heder’s CODA and Jane Campion’s The Power of the Dog. Bigelow, Zhao and Heder’s movies took home Best Picture.

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In addition, Emma Stone (Poor Things) became the second woman in Oscar history to land noms for Best Picture and Best Actress in the same year. The first was Frances McDormand, who scored Best Actress and Best Picture noms for Nomadland. She won in both slots.

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Also, Gerwig made history as the first film director to have their first three solo directed films nominated for Best Picture in their career, effective this morning with Barbie joining Little Women and Ladybird. That said, Gerwig was snubbed in the directing category. Her career counts four Oscar noms: for Original Screenplay and Directing on Ladybird, for Best Adapted Screenplay on Little Women, and best Adapted Screenplay for Barbie.