This year’s Oscar nominees for Best Director are exclusively men, the all-male lineup has left critics and fans alike feeling “tired, bored, and disappointed.”
The nominations for the 95th Academy Awards have finally been announced. Everything Everywhere All at Once is the leader of the pack with 11 nominations, followed by Netflix’s war epic All Quiet on The Western Front with nine nods.
While it’ll always be impossible to tick every box and please everyone, the Best Director lineup has echoed past years for the worse, with the slots filled by an all-male lineup.
According to people online, the problem isn’t that they’re nominated – it’s that it comes after a year of movies where female talent could and should have been highlighted.
Only men nominated for Best Director at Oscars
In the Best Director category, the following filmmakers were nominated: Martin McDonagh for The Banshees of Inisherin, Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert for Everything Everywhere All at Once, Steven Spielberg for The Fabelmans, Todd Field for TÁR, and Ruben Östlund for Triangle of Sadness.
While they’ve all received critical acclaim for their movies, other directors could have been nominated, like Charlotte Wells for Aftersun, Gina Prince-Bythewood for The Woman King, or Sarah Polley for Women Talking – the latter film even got a Best Picture nod.
“There were plenty of options to avoid an all-male lineup… Charlotte Wells, Gina Prince-Bythewood, Sarah Polley, Chinonye Chukwu were right there!” one user wrote.
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“Not surprised, just disappointed. All male director nominees for #Oscars2023. Where’s Sarah Polley, Charlotte Wells, Gina Prince-Bythewood? Sick of directing work by women being overlooked AGAIN,” another tweeted.
“Triangle of Sadness is fine at best but can’t help but think he could’ve been swapped out for somebody like Charlotte Wells, Sarah Polley, or Gina Prince-Bythewood,” a third wrote.
“ONLY MEN NOMINATED FOR BEST DIRECTOR?! In 2023?! I’m tired and bored. Did the Academy think that Women Talking was directed by a ghost? What a horrible missed opportunity to nominate Sarah Polley for Best Director,” a fourth tweeted.
For the full list of nominations for the 2023 Oscars, click here.
The 95th Academy Awards then take place on March 12, 2023. You can find out how to watch the ceremony here.
