The 2020 Oscar nominations were unveiled this morning and, of course, people are pointing out all of the Academy's disappointing decisions. You could compile a lengthy list of them, but the most glaring one is that no women are nominated in the Best Director category. The Oscars have been overlooking female directors since its inception and Issa Rae could no longer hold her tongue on the matter while she was presenting the list of nominees early Monday morning.
“Congratulations to those men,” Rae quipped after the five male nominees were named during this morning's livestream. The directors that are being recognized include Martin Scorsese (The Irishman), Todd Phillips (Joker), Sam Mendes (1917), Quentin Tarantino (Once Upon A Time In Hollywood) and Bong Joon Ho (Parasite).
Notable omissions from the category this year are Greta Gerwig (Little Women), Lulu Wang (The Farewell), Melina Matsoukas (Queen & Slim), Céline Sciamma (Portrait Of A Lady On Fire) and Lorene Scafaria (Hustlers). Kathryn Bigelow (The Hurt Locker) has been the only woman to ever win Best Director in the Academy’s 92-year history. In 2017, Gerwig became the fifth female director to be nominated in the category for Lady Bird, following Lina Wertmüller for Seven Beauties in 1976, Jane Campion for The Piano 1993 and Sofia Coppola for Lost in Translation in 2003.