No Women Were Nominated For The Best Director Oscar This Year

Gina Prince-Bythewood, Sarah Polley and Domee Shi, three women who directed acclaimed films in 2022, but were not nominated for the Best Director Oscar on Tuesday.

Following two consecutive years of women winning the Best Director Oscar, the Academy completely ignored the many women who directed acclaimed movies this year, nominating an entire category of men for Best Director on Tuesday morning.

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.

Not on the list was Gina Prince-Bythewood, who led an incredible cast and crew of Black women in making the historical epic “The Woman King,” which has grossed nearly $70 million at the box office. Nor was Sarah Polley, who beautifully crafted “Women Talking,” a small but mighty film about a group of Mennonite women that, as the film unfolds, becomes a microcosm for societal questions on forming democratic systems and trying to escape abusers and abusive institutions. Or Domee Shi, director of Pixar’s “Turning Red,” who managed to make a funny and sweet animated movie about periods. Or Charlotte Wells, whose indie darling “Aftersun” showed a tender and introspective side of “Normal People” star Paul Mescal as a young parent. Or Laura Poitras, whose searing documentary “All the Beauty and the Bloodshed” powerfully wove together artist and activist Nan Goldin’s past and present. And on and on and on.