Women Filmmakers Set Oscar Nomination Record In Best Picture Category

Three female directors saw their movies nab Best Picture Nominations this year — the first time that’s ever 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 the fifth consecutive year, at least one of the Best Pictures 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.

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.

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

Also, Gerwig made history as the first female film director to have three solo directorial films nominated for Best Picture in their career, effective with Barbie this AM; her other two titles being Little Women and Ladybird.