In almost a century of Academy Awards history, women behind the camera have been nominated shockingly rarely — and ignored even when their films are at the centre of the Oscar conversation. Only a handful have ever been up for Best Director, and just three have actually won.
This post looks at 24 cases where the work of women directors was overlooked, even as their films, actors, and crafts were celebrated.
- A quick look at how few women have been nominated for Best Director
- Historic snubs from Lina Wertmüller to Barbra Streisand and Jane Campion
- Recent omissions of women of colour like Ava DuVernay and Gina Prince-Bythewood
- Greta Gerwig’s repeated shutouts for Little Women and Barbie
Across 96 Oscar ceremonies, only a tiny number of women have ever been nominated for Best Director — and just three have taken home the trophy: Kathryn Bigelow, Chloé Zhao, and Jane Campion.
Even when films directed by women earn Best Picture nods, acting wins, or screenplay awards, the director herself is often left off the ballot. The recent snubs for The Woman King, Till, and Barbie show that this pattern is far from over.
In 1977 — almost 50 years after the Oscars began — Lina Wertmüller became the first woman ever nominated for Best Director, for Seven Beauties.
The film also received nominations for Best Foreign Language Film, Best Screenplay, and Best Actor for Giancarlo Giannini, but it went home empty‑handed in every category.
Even more telling: it would be nearly two decades before another woman — Jane Campion for The Piano — was nominated in the category again.
Randa Haines directed Children of a Lesser God (1986), a drama that earned five Oscar nominations including Best Picture — but not Best Director.
Marlee Matlin won Best Actress, becoming the youngest and first deaf performer to win an acting Oscar, while Haines’ crucial work in shaping the film’s performances and tone went unrecognized.
Barbra Streisand made her directing debut with Yentl (1983), which earned five Oscar nominations and won two, yet she was snubbed for Best Director.
She later directed The Prince of Tides (1991), which scored seven nominations including Best Picture — again, with no directing nod for Streisand.
She did become the first woman to win a Golden Globe for Best Director, but had to watch the Oscars shut her out twice even as her films were embraced elsewhere.
Penny Marshall directed Awakenings (1990), which earned three Oscar nominations, including Best Picture and Best Actor for Robert De Niro.
Critics praised her sensitive, human direction, but the Academy recognised the film and performances instead of the woman who brought them together.
Jane Campion became only the second woman nominated for Best Director for The Piano (1993), a film that went on to win Oscars for Screenplay, Best Actress (Holly Hunter), and Best Supporting Actress (Anna Paquin).
Campion lost the directing prize that year, a reminder that even landmark nominations for women often stop short of an actual win.
With Lost in Translation (2003), Sofia Coppola became only the third woman ever nominated for Best Director, winning the Oscar for Best Original Screenplay instead.
The film also earned nominations for Best Picture and Best Actor (Bill Murray), but Coppola lost the directing race to Peter Jackson for The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King.
Valerie Faris and Jonathan Dayton’s debut Little Miss Sunshine (2006) was a critical and audience favourite that won Oscars for Original Screenplay and Supporting Actor (Alan Arkin) and earned a Best Picture nomination.
Despite that love, the directing duo was completely absent from the Best Director lineup, an early example of the Academy rewarding the film but not the co‑director who happened to be a woman.
Lisa Cholodenko’s The Kids Are All Right (2010) scored four nominations — Best Picture, Best Original Screenplay, Best Actress (Annette Bening), and Best Supporting Actor (Mark Ruffalo) — but no Best Director nod.
The directing race was once again all‑male that year, despite multiple acclaimed films by women in contention.
Debra Granik’s Winter’s Bone (2010) introduced much of the world to Jennifer Lawrence and earned four nominations: Best Picture, Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Actress, and Best Supporting Actor.
Granik’s spare, atmospheric direction — crucial to the film’s impact — was left out of the Best Director lineup entirely.
After making history as the first woman to win Best Director for The Hurt Locker, Kathryn Bigelow was shockingly snubbed for Zero Dark Thirty (2012).
The film received five nominations, including Best Picture, but Bigelow’s name was nowhere to be found on the directing ballot.
Ava DuVernay could have become the first Black woman nominated for Best Director with Selma (2014), but the Academy stopped at a Best Picture nod and a win for Best Original Song.
DuVernay later said she wasn’t surprised by the result, pointing to the numbers: the pool of voters simply didn’t reflect the people making and watching these films.
Patty Jenkins’s Wonder Woman (2017) was a critical and box‑office phenomenon, and one of the most acclaimed superhero films of its era.
Unlike The Dark Knight or Black Panther, it received zero Oscar nominations, despite early buzz that it might break the genre barrier for women‑led blockbusters.
Directed by Kasi Lemmons, Harriet (2019) earned nominations for Best Actress (Cynthia Erivo) and Best Original Song — but nothing for its director.
The year’s red carpets were full of talk about snubbed women directors, with Lemmons’ name literally stitched onto Natalie Portman’s cape as a protest statement.
Melina Matsoukas’s debut feature Queen & Slim (2019) drew strong reviews and earned her a Directors Guild nomination for first‑time feature directing — but no recognition from the Academy.
That year’s Best Director field was entirely male again, prompting Issa Rae’s now‑famous comment when reading the nominations: “Congratulations to those men.”
Greta Gerwig had already been nominated for Best Director for Lady Bird, but when Little Women (2019) landed six major nominations — including Best Picture, Best Actress, Best Supporting Actress, and Best Adapted Screenplay — she was left out of the directing lineup.
The snub became a flashpoint, with many critics arguing that the Academy was happy to honour Gerwig’s writing and her actors while refusing to see her as an auteur on the same level as her male peers.
Marielle Heller suffered back‑to‑back omissions. Can You Ever Forgive Me? (2018) earned acting and writing nominations, and A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood (2019) brought Tom Hanks another nod — but Heller herself was not nominated for either film.
She later noted that there were “too many” worthy women filmmakers in one year, and the industry still didn’t know how to handle more than a single “acceptable” female director at a time.
Lulu Wang’s The Farewell (2019) was one of the year’s most acclaimed films, earning Golden Globe attention for Best Picture and a win for Awkwafina in Best Actress — but it received zero Oscar nominations.
For many, its total shutout remains one of the clearest examples of the Academy’s blind spots around intimate, non‑Western family stories told by women directors of colour.
Alma Har’el won the Directors Guild’s first‑time feature film award for Honey Boy (2019), a deeply personal father‑son drama.
Despite strong reviews and industry buzz, the film failed to land a single Oscar nomination, including for Har’el’s direction.
Gina Prince‑Bythewood’s historical epic The Woman King (2022) was a critical hit and a box‑office success, yet it received zero Oscar nominations — not for its performances, crafts, or directing.
Prince‑Bythewood later wrote that this was “not a snub” but a reflection of how the Academy still fails to recognize Black excellence, especially when it comes to Black women filmmakers.
Chinonye Chukwu’s Till (2022) also went 0‑for‑everything with the Academy, despite strong reviews and awards buzz for Danielle Deadwyler’s performance.
On nomination day, Chukwu posted about working in systems that are “aggressively committed to upholding whiteness” — a pointed response to yet another total shutout for a Black woman‑directed film.
Sarah Polley’s Women Talking (2022) was nominated for Best Picture and won the Oscar for Best Adapted Screenplay, but she was not nominated for Best Director.
Polley later said that while she was thrilled for the film’s recognition, it was difficult to celebrate in a year when some of the best films were made by Black women who were not honoured at all.
With Aftersun, debut filmmaker Charlotte Wells delivered one of the most acclaimed films of the year, earning Paul Mescal a Best Actor nomination while her own work went unrecognised.
The film’s intimate, memory‑driven style drew rave reviews, yet the Academy once again stopped at honouring the man on screen rather than the woman behind the camera.
Maria Schrader’s She Said (2022), about The New York Times’s investigation into Harvey Weinstein, failed to receive a single Oscar nomination.
The film’s subject matter — systemic abuse and the power of women speaking out — made its complete absence from the Academy’s shortlist feel especially pointed.
Greta Gerwig was snubbed again in 2024 when she was not nominated for Best Director for Barbie, despite the film earning eight nominations, including Best Picture.
Neither Gerwig nor star Margot Robbie made their respective categories, sparking widespread debate about how far the Academy is willing to go in honouring female‑led, female‑authored blockbusters.
Gerwig later said she still felt “nominated” because Barbie made the Best Picture lineup — a bittersweet acknowledgement that the film was recognised while its female creator was not.
Looked at together, these 24 stories show a clear pattern: even when films directed by women become cultural events, awards darlings, or box‑office hits, the Academy often stops short of honouring the women behind the camera.
Progress is real — there are now three women Best Director winners and a slowly growing list of nominees — but the gap between women’s work and the recognition it receives remains impossible to ignore.
Which of these snubs frustrates you the most — Streisand, DuVernay, Prince‑Bythewood, Gerwig, or someone else entirely?
Drop your thoughts and your own favourite overlooked women‑directed films in the comments, and suggest entries for a possible Part 2. For more deep dives into Oscar history, representation, and records, follow the blog and subscribe to Cinema Awards Archive on YouTube.
