No girl received a nomination for Best Director, and now a lot of dumb people are angry and outraged.
The nominations for the 95th Academy Awards were announced Tuesday, and in the genderless Best Director category, the ladies were snubbed.
Instead of any chicks, the nominees are…
- Martin McDonagh – The Banshees of Inisherin
- Daniel Kwan, Daniel Scheinert – Everything Everywhere All at Once
- Steven Spielberg – The Fabelmans
- Todd Field – Tár
- Ruben Östlund – Triangle of Sadness
Cue the #OscarsSoMale outage…
Variety crybabies:
The Academy Award nominations, announced on Tuesday, did not include women filmmakers such as Sarah Polley (“Women Talking”), Gina Prince-Bythewood (“The Woman King”), Maria Schrader (“She Said”) and Charlotte Wells (“Aftersun”) in the best director lineup. Women have won the category the past two years in a row, with Chloé Zhao taking home the 2021 prize for “Nomadland” and Jane Campion scoring last year for “Power of the Dog.”
HuffPo crybabies:
In the words of Issa Rae, who presented the Oscar nominations in 2020, the last time there was an all-male group of Best Director nominees: “Congratulations to those men.”
It’s exhausting that it has once again happened, and somehow keeps happening. I had hoped to not have to publish this story. I had hoped to have been wrong.
People crybabying…
Female directors shut out of the category whose films were nominated in other categories include Charlotte Wells (Aftersun) and Sarah Polley (Women Talking). Gina Prince-Bythewood’s The Woman King, Chinonye Chukwu’s Till and Maria Schrader’s She Said were also not recognized.
Women Talking, despite missing out on a Best Director nomination, was nominated for Best Picture.
Hollywood Reporter crybabies….
That means there were no women nominated despite a buzzy awards year for female filmmakers, like The Woman King‘s Gina Prince-Bythewood and Women Talking‘s Sarah Polley, or Till‘s Chinonye Chukwu, She Said‘s Maria Schrader and Aftersun‘s Charlotte Wells.
You can imagine the harpies on Twitter right now…
But, so far, no one (I could find) who’s upset over this is making an argument other than “vagina.”
And I’m sorry, but in a sane world, “vagina” is not an argument.
If you believe a female director was snubbed due to her gender this year, make your case, and make that case by way of art and merit.
Or.
If you think the Academy Awards should be a social justice, affirmative-action, reparations, Everybody Gets a Trophy outlet, then say so.
This is why the Oscars are not only irrelevant but the kiss of death at the box office.
Everyone knows that almost every title with Oscar’s stink attached will have nothing to do with art, humanity, beauty, or intelligent storytelling — and everything to do with affirmative action, imaginary racial and gender grievances, smug performances, and characters no normal person can relate to.
I haven’t seen Women Talking, but I do know Sarah Polley is a terrific director, and without seeing it, even I can make the beginning of an argument for why she might be more worthy of a Best Director nod than one of those fellas. How about the fact Women Talking takes place almost entirely in a single location? How about the difficulties and enormous challenges of making an engrossing film where people stand around and talk? Pulling that off sounds pretty challenging to me, not to mention unique. How many directors have pulled that off?
Make a case, crybabies… And base that case on creativity, merit, art, and talent. Right now, you are just screaming “vagina,” which will only undermine the achievement of the next woman nominated.
Follow John Nolte on Twitter @NolteNC. Follow his Facebook Page here.
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