The Academy Awards AKA the Oscars have been considered the highest honor in the film industry since its inception in 1929. The Oscars have a variety of categories ranging from the all encompassing Best Picture to the more specific Best Supporting Actor. Each category has specific criteria to meet in order to be considered for the award. One award that is most coveted by filmmakers is the award for Best Director.
Considering the widespread Oscar Boycott of 2016, plenty of people within the film industry feel that the Academy Awards show a lack of diversity in nominations and winners. While this applies mostly to BIPOC individuals within the film industry, this also applies to women. Last year, Chloé Zhao made Oscar history by being the first woman director of color — and second woman overall — to win Best Director at the Oscars for her work on Nomadland. Of course, throughout Oscar history, Zhao has not been the only woman director to be nominated for Best Director. Here is every woman nominated for Best Director at the Academy Awards.
7 Lina Wertmüller — Seven Beauties (1975)
Making history as the first woman director ever to be nominated for Best Director in 1977 at the Oscars is Lina Wertmüller for her work on Seven Beauties, a film about a man who manages to escape imprisonment by enlisting in the military, but when he goes AWOL, he ends up in a concentration camp, willing to do anything to survive. Seven Beauties blended genres, ranging from drama to comedy, broke boundaries, and sent Wertmüller's career soaring. While she didn't win the Oscar, Wertmüller snagged an Academy Honorary Award for her career in 2019. She continued her career until her death in 2021 at the age of 93.
6 Dame Jane Campion — The Piano (1993); The Power of the Dog (2021)
Dame Elizabeth Jane Campion makes the list as the first woman to be nominated twice for Best Director. Her first nomination came in 1994 for her work on The Piano, a film about a mute woman who finds herself in the wilds of New Zealand. Her second nomination is still pending for her work on The Power of Dog, a highly acclaimed film about rancher Phil who displays his distaste for his new sister-in-law and her book-smart son. The film examines the themes of love, grief, and resentment. It earned 10 other Academy Award nominations, including Best Picture. Let’s hope that we can add Dame Jane Campion to the list of winners of Best Director.
5 Sofia Coppola — Lost in Translation (2003)
Known for her work on The Virgin Suicides and Marie Antoinette, Sofia Coppola, daughter of award-winning director Francis Ford Coppola, earned herself a nomination for Best Director for Lost In Translation, a story about Americans Charlotte and Bob who meet in Tokyo and bond over their shared identity crises. While Coppola began her career as an actress, starring in the conclusion of Francis Ford Coppola’s Godfather trilogy, The Godfather Part III, she soon moved to directing, which earned her a number of awards, including a Golden Globe for Best Screenplay for Lost In Translation.
4 Kathryn Bigelow — The Hurt Locker (2008)
The Hurt Locker is a war film following an Iraq War Explosive Disposal team and the psychological impact of the trauma of war. The film was nominated for a number of Oscars, including Best Director for Kathryn Bigelow, which she ultimately won, making her the first woman in history to win the award. Bigelow’s directorial debut was in 1981 on the film The Loveless starring Willem Dafoe. Her work continued to pile on over the years, including Blue Steel and Strange Days, before garnering real attention for The Hurt Locker. Bigelow went on to direct Zero Dark Thirty and Detroit before seemingly retiring her directorial hat.
3 Greta Gerwig
Greta Gerwig, previously known for her performance as Frances in Frances Ha, made her solo directorial debut with Lady Bird, a film about a strained mother-daughter relationship starring Saoirse Ronan and Laurie Metcalf. Lady Bird not only received a nomination for Best Director at the Academy Awards, but four other nominations, including Best Picture. Gerwig continued her directorial work, bringing about a new version of Little Women in 2019, which also received a nomination for Best Picture. Gerwig’s career shows no sign of slowing down with her new film Barbie set to be released in 2023 and another film Snow White and the Seven Dwarves for which she will act as writer, but not director.
2 Emerald Fennell — Promising Young Woman (2021)
Alongside Chloé Zhao’s nomination for Best Director was Emerald Fennell for directorial debut Promising Young Woman, a black comedy thriller about a young woman haunted by a traumatizing past. It follows her journey as she navigates the worlds of forgiveness and vengeance. Starring Carey Mulligan, Bo Burnham, and Alison Brie, Promising Young Woman did manage to snag the Academy-Award for Best Original Screenplay along with the nominations for Best Picture, Best Actress (for Mulligan) and Best Director.
1 Chloé Zhao
Chloé Zhao made Oscar history as the first woman of color to ever win Best Director at the Oscars for her work on Nomadland. Nomadland follows a woman in her 60s after the Great Recession, who goes on a journey through the American west after losing everything, living as a modern nomad. Thanks to the performance from Frances McDormand and the direction of Zhao, Nomadland became a critically acclaimed masterpiece, winning Best Director, Best Picture and Best Actress (for McDormand) at the Academy Awards. Zhao made her directorial debut on the Indigenous film Songs My Brother Taught Me which set the tone for her career, winning her the Independent Spirit Award for Best First Feature.