Advocacy group Women in Film blasts Oscars for lack of female best director nominees

An advocacy group is blasting this year’s Oscars for its lack of women nominees in the best director category.

Nominations for the 95th Academy Awards were announced on Tuesday. The best director nominees were all men: Ruben Östlund for “Triangle of Sadness,” Martin McDonaugh for “The Banshees of Inisherin,” Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert’s “Everything Everywhere All at Once,” Steven Spielberg for “The Fabelmans,” and Todd Field for “Tár.”

“Once again, Academy voters have shown that they don’t value women’s voices, shutting us out of the Best Director nominations,” the group Women in Film (WIF) said in a statement to ITK on Tuesday.

“An Academy Award is more than a gold statue, it's a career accelerator that can lead to continued work and increased compensation,” the WIF statement said.

The group noted the work of several women filmmakers, including “Women Talking” director Sarah Polley, “The Woman King’s” Gina Prince-Bythewood, Charlotte Wells’s “Aftersun” and Chinonye Chukwu’s “Till.”

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences declined ITK’s request for comment.

While no women made the cut in this year’s best director nominations, women took home the directing Oscar the past two years in a row. Jane Campion won the award for “The Power of the Dog” last year, while “Nomadland” director Chloé Zao was the winner in 2021.

The annual awards also saw an uptick in women nominees — 65 women were nominated on Tuesday, compared to 60 last year.

The Oscars is poised to air on ABC on March 12.

Scheinert’s "Everything Everywhere All at Once" leads the field of nominations with 11, including best picture, best actress for Michelle Yeoh and two nods for best supporting actress: Stephanie Hsu and Jamie Lee Curtis.