Greta Gerwig (‘Barbie’) just set several Critics Choice Awards records and may soon achieve even more

In proving their love for “Barbie” by putting it in the running for 16 of their annual movie awards, the Critics Choice Association demonstrated continued admiration for filmmaker Greta Gerwig, whose three solo directorial efforts have all merited at least eight nominations from the group. Her newest bids for writing and helming the toy-based comedy make her the first individual in Critics Choice Awards history to concurrently compete in both capacities three times, and that’s merely one of the unprecedented distinctions she just achieved.

As a past Best Director and Best (Original, then Adapted) Screenplay contender for “Lady Bird” (2018) and “Little Women” (2020), Gerwig already stood as the only woman with two such sets of CCA nominations. After David O. Russell (“American Hustle,” 2014; “Silver Linings Playbook,” 2013), she was also the second person whose pair of double dips included one of each type of writing bid. Having scored her sole CCA victory for crafting the “Little Women” script, she now has a chance to blaze a trail as the first female writer feted twice by this group and the first general recipient of both their adapted and original screenplay prizes (the latter of which she would share with Noah Baumbach).

Gerwig’s “Lady Bird” notices – which followed lead and supporting acting ones for “Frances Ha” (2014) and “20th Century Women” (2016) – made her the second woman to earn CCA recognition as the writer and director of a single film. The first was Sofia Coppola (“Lost in Translation,” 2004), whose example has also been emulated by Emerald Fennell (“Promising Young Woman,” 2021), Chloé Zhao (“Nomadland,” 2021), Jane Campion (“The Power of the Dog,” 2022), and Sarah Polley (“Women Talking,” 2023). Gerwig would follow Zhao and Campion as the third woman honored in both areas simultaneously but would stand apart from them since they won for adapted screenplays.

Factoring in male filmmakers Anthony Minghella (“The English Patient,” 1997), Damien Chazelle (“La La Land,” 2016), and Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert (“Everything Everywhere All at Once,” 2023), Gerwig would be the sixth concurrent writing and directing champion in CCA history. As of now, her new directing mention alone makes her that category’s first female three-time contender, breaking her previous tie with repeat nominee Kathryn Bigelow (“The Hurt Locker,” 2010; “Zero Dark Thirty,” 2013). Besides those also recognized for their writing, the women who have made single appearances here are Ava DuVernay (“Selma,” 2015), Angelina Jolie (“Unbroken,” 2015), Regina King (“One Night in Miami,” 2021), and Gina Prince-Bythewood (“The Woman King,” 2023).

This winter, Gerwig could quite feasibly join Bigelow (2010), Zhao, and Campion on the relatively short yet rapidly growing list of CCA-winning woman directors and (after starting it in 2020) continue the present four-year streak of there being at least one annual female writing champ. Others simultaneously in the hunt for Best Director and a screenplay award this year include Bradley Cooper (“Maestro”), Christopher Nolan (“Oppenheimer”), and Martin Scorsese (“Killers of the Flower Moon”).

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