Only a handful of women have been nominated for Best Director at the Oscars, while many more female directors have been snubbed despite their films getting nominated for Best Picture. A total of 10 women have seen their work acknowledged in Best Picture without getting their proper due, including most recently Greta Gerwig (“Little Women”). Check out the 10 women snubbed in Best Director in our photo gallery below.
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Randa Haines
Image Credit: Takashi Seida/Paramount/Kobal/REX/Shutterstock “Children of a Lesser God” (1986)
“Children of a Lesser God” was the first film directed by a woman to be nominated for Best Picture in Oscar history. Unfortunately, the film’s director, Randa Haines, was not honored in Best Director, despite directing Marlee Matlin to a Best Actress win. The Best Director category matched up 4-for-5 with Best Picture, with David Lynch getting nominated for “Blue Velvet” in place of Haines.
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Penny Marshall
Image Credit: Andrew Schwartz/Kobal/REX/Shutterstock “Awakenings” (1990)
Actress-turned-director Penny Marshall had her 1990 film “Awakenings” nominated for Best Picture, while she was snubbed in Best Director. Best Director matched 3-for-5 with Best Picture, with “Ghost” director Jerry Zucker also missing out, for Stephen Frears (“The Grifters”) and Barbet Schroeder (“Reversal of Fortune”). Marshall previously directed “Big,” the first movie directed by a woman to gross over $100 million at the box office.
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Barbra Streisand
Image Credit: Moviestore Collection/REX/Shutterstock “The Prince of Tides” (1991)
Oscar-winning music legend Barbra Streisand could not get nominated for Best Director for her film “The Prince of Tides,” which nonetheless earned a nom in Best Picture. The Picture-Director matchup was again 3-for-5, with “Beauty and the Beast” directors Gary Trousdale and Kirk Wise also snubbed in favor of John Singleton for “Boyz n the Hood” and Ridley Scott for “Thelma & Louise.” However, Streisand was nominated in Best Picture as a producer.
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Valerie Faris (with Jonathan Dayton)
Image Credit: Eric Lee/20th Century Fox/Fox Searchlight/Kobal/REX/Shutterstock “Little Miss Sunshine” (2006)
While not a solo effort, Valerie Faris certainly counts as a snubbed female director for “Little Miss Sunshine,” which she directed with partner Jonathan Dayton. The Picture-Director lineup matched 4-for-5, with Paul Greengrass getting in for “United 93.” Faris, who helped guide Alan Arkin to a Best Supporting Actor win, is the last female director snub of the five Best Picture nominees system.
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Lone Scherfig
Image Credit: Moviestore/REX/Shutterstock “An Education” (2009)
When the Best Picture lineup expanded to 10 in 2009, there were two female-directed films nominated — Kathryn Bigelow’s “The Hurt Locker” and Lone Scherfig’s “An Education.” Bigelow and “The Hurt Locker” went on to win Best Director and Picture, respectively, but Scherfig was snubbed in Best Director. The new expanded lineup naturally allowed for more female-directed films in Best Picture, but also more potential for snubs in Best Director.
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Lisa Cholodenko
Image Credit: Amanda Schwab/StarPix/REX/Shutterstock “The Kids Are All Right” (2010)
Like the prior year, 2010 had two woman-helmed movies nominated for Best Picture, one of which was Lisa Cholodenko’s “The Kids Are All Right.” Cholodenko was not nominated in Best Director, but she did earn a nomination for Best Original Screenplay, alongside Stuart Blumberg. Cholodenko would have better success at the Emmys, winning for directing the 2015 limited series “Olive Kitteridge.”
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Debra Granik
Image Credit: Daniel Joubert / EPA/REX/Shutterstock “Winter’s Bone” (2010)
The other film directed by a woman nominated for Best Picture in 2010 was “Winter’s Bone,” directed by Debra Granik. And much like Cholodenko, Granik was not nominated for Best Director but did earn an Adapted Screenplay nomination, with co-writer Anne Rosellini. Coincidentally, the only other nominations for both “The Kids Are All Right” and “Winter’s Bone” were Best Actress and Best Supporting Actor.
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Kathryn Bigelow
Image Credit: Jonathan Olley/ Snap Stills/REX/Shutterstock “Zero Dark Thirty” (2012)
Even the sole woman to win Best Director at the Oscars wasn’t safe from a snubbing. Kathryn Bigelow was shockingly not nominated for Best Picture nominee “Zero Dark Thirty” just three years after winning for “The Hurt Locker.” This was slightly overshadowed in the media by Ben Affleck also being snubbed for “Argo,” which went on to win Best Picture, but it was still a huge surprise to Oscar prognosticators.
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Ava DuVernay
Image Credit: Nishijima/Paramount/Pathe/Harpo/Kobal/REX/Shutterstock “Selma” (2014)
Ava DuVernay could have been the first black female director nominated for Best Director, but she was overlooked. “Selma” was nominated for Best Picture along with just one other nomination, in Best Original Song for “Glory,” which took home the trophy. What made DuVernay’s snub in Best Director even more egregious was Bennett Miller being nominated for “Foxcatcher” despite the film not even making it into Best Picture.
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Greta Gerwig
Image Credit: Magnus Sundholm/Shutterstock “Little Women” (2019)
Greta Gerwig became the fifth women to be nominated for Best Director for her work on “Lady Bird” (2017). Many speculated that she would earn a followup nomination two years later for “Little Women” but it was not to be. However, she did become the first woman to have her first two solo outings as a director be nominated for Best Picture.
