The Oscars are the gold standard for people who care more about gold than standards. While many great films are nominated and won, many others lose major awards they are nominated for or even don't get nominated at all. With so few slots available, only so many filmmakers can be nominated, and oftentimes, women filmmakers are overlooked. Kathryn Bigelow became the first woman to win the Best Director Oscar at the 82nd Academy Awards, meaning for 82 years, it appeared that no woman had ever directed a film worthy of Best Picture until that point in the eyes of the Academy. In 2020 during the Academy Awards, Natalie Portman even called out the fact that no woman was nominated for Best Director despite the incredible work by Greta Gerwig for Little Women, Lulu Wang for The Farwell, or Céline Sciamma for Portrait of a Lady on Fire.

The unfair balance of female filmmakers is still prevalent today. Even with a new year starting, it was reported in a study by USC Annenberg’s Inclusion Initiative (via Variety) that calls on the entertainment industry to support inclusion as performative acts. The report found that 116 directors were attached to the 100 top-grossing domestic films in 2023, but just 14 of them, or 12.1%, were women, and that percentage of female filmmakers on top movies had not changed notably since 2018, when 4.5% of directors were women. Now all eyes are on the upcoming Academy Awards to see if filmmakers like Greta Gerwig for Barbie, Celeine Song for Past Lives, or Kelly Fremon Craig for Are You There God? It's Me, Margeret can manage to pull ahead for a potential Best Director nomination or if they will be passed over for Christopher Nolan, Martin Scorsese, and Alexander Payne.

There are plenty of great female directors who should have been nominated for Best Director but, sadly, have been passed over. This list only scratches a fraction of that, but ones that are worth checking out. Here are thirteen female directors who should’ve been nominated and somehow weren’t.

Update January 2, 2024: With the Academy Award nominations just around the corner and a recent study finding how Hollywood's claim to hire more female filmmakers has been performative, this article has been updated with even more great women filmmakers who were snubbed for Best Director.

13 Penny Marshall - Big (1988)

Legendary television star and celebrated director Penny Marshall was no stranger to crafting unforgettable and spirited pictures throughout her career, and she enlisted the undeniable talent of Hollywood sweetheart Tom Hanks to headline her '80s fantasy dramedy Big. Though Hanks had successfully starred in the popular rom-com Splash, his star power had yet to be fully tapped into until Marshall brought him on to portray a twelve-year-old boy who magically finds himself transformed into a 30-year-old man after making a wish. What ensued was a career-paving performance by the actor and a trailblazing cinematic triumph for the director.

Why They Deserved a Nomination

Lauded by both critics and audiences alike, Big was the first feature film directed by a woman to surpass over $100 million at the box office and garnered widespread praise for Hanks' wholesome and earnest portrayal, exceptional writing, and, of course, Marshall's keen vision. Though the screenplay and Hanks did receive an Oscar nod, Marshall was shamefully excluded from a Best Director nomination despite shattering records and establishing herself as a true pioneer in cinema. Her other silver screen endeavors like Awakenings and A League of Their Own were also major successes, yet Marshall never received her flowers from the Academy and never did as she passed away on December 17, 2018. Stream on Disney+

12 Julie Dash - Daughters of the Dust (1991)

Nominated for Sundance’s Grand Jury Prize, Daughters of the Dust was the first film directed by a Black woman to have a U.S. theatrical distribution. It’s a deeply spiritual look at three generations of Gullah women living on a Georgian island in the early 20th century—but more than anything, it’s a thesis that love is empathy to the extreme of feeling another’s pain, making the horrors these women have to endure on screen not trauma porn but a love letter from Julie Dash to Black women living in the United States.

Why They Deserved a Nomination

Just as A Raisin in the Sun could only be the first onstage due to its magnificence, Dust could only break on and offscreen barriers with its ingenuity and poetry. The engrossing picture competed for the Grand Jury Prize at the Sundance Film Festival and took home the Excellence in Cinematography Award, with the The New York Times marveling at its "spellbinding visual beauty" and calling Dash a "strikingly original film maker." Despite such an overwhelmingly positive response to Daughters of the Dust, the director was unable to create and produce a feature film in mainstream Hollywood, instead focusing on television, declaring that studio executives weren't receptive to Dust's unconventional form. Rent/Buy on Prime Video

11 The Wachowskis - The Matrix (1999)

While their cyberpunk spectacle won four Oscars for Visual Effects, Editing, and both Sound categories, it was disregarded in every other capacity. Today, The Matrix is one of the most multifaceted texts in contemporary cinema, recognized canonically as a trans and anti-capitalist allegory — and incorrectly as whatever Redditors think red pills mean.

Why They Deserved a Nomination

The Matrix is widely regarded as one of the finest science fiction films of all time and helped launch a massively successful and lucrative franchise that inspired countless movies upon its sensational release. While Lana and Lilly Wachowski hadn’t yet come out as trans in time for the Academy Award ceremony, it should’ve been recorded as a clairvoyant certainty that the creators of this celebrated masterpiece were women, as they received no Directing nominations. Stream on Hulu

10 Kimberly Peirce - Boys Don't Cry (1999)

Kimberly Peirce helped recount the tragic and devastating true story of the far-too-short life of Brandon Teena, a transgender man who was brutally assaulted and murdered in the 1999 biographical drama Boys Don't Cry. Hilary Swank delivered one of the finest performances of her career and earned the Oscar for Best Actress when she took on the role of Teena in the powerful picture, for which Peirce also co-wrote the screenplay after reading about the shocking case in college. The director worked on the script for over five years, during which she conducted comprehensive research on Teena and his story.

Related: 10 Greatest Female Directors of the 1990s

Why They Deserved a Nomination

Peirce masterfully addressed sensitive concepts and themes like gender, personal relationships, social class, and violence against LGBTQ+ people in the drama and respectfully depicted the life and legacy of Teena, and Boys Don't Cry went on to be lauded as one of the greatest films of the year and a deeply moving and profound biopic. Though Peirce received numerous accolades during the awards season, like the trophy for Outstanding Directorial Debut by the National Board of Review, the filmmaker was ultimately snubbed by the Academy for her admirable efforts. Now Boys Don't Cry is considered a rather controversial film for it's depiction of trans man being played by a Cis-actor and it is certainly worth having a conversation regarding how a film that was at one point seen as progressive can now be seen as regressive, but at the time there was no reason to not nominated Pierce for Best Director. Rent/Buy on Prime Video

9 Mary Harron - American Psycho (2000)

While Wall Street, The Wolf of Wall Street, and Psycho all received plenty of Oscar nominations, this outstanding satire that allowed viewers to watch Jared Leto get gnocchi’d with an axe got snubbed. American Psycho is a hilarious and disturbing look at the brutality of Wall Street’s evils through a much more identifiable unkindness: killing. Christian Bale was superb as an investment banker by day and a serial killer by night. Patrick Bateman both dazzled and disturbed audiences with his unhinged performance in the horror hit.

Why They Deserved a Nomination

Its ambiguity, its directness, its narcissistic narrator all add up to a feeling that the new Willy Loman is the man who killed off the old Willy Loman. What clearly separated it was that it was written and directed by women, demoting this phenomenal thriller into a polarizing jab at masculinity—which should have earned Mary Harron a Best Director nomination. The movie is still as beloved now as it was when it was released which is a testament to Harron's direction. Stream on Peacock

8 Mira Nair - Monsoon Wedding (2001)

In many ways, it makes sense for Indian filmmaking to never have caught on with the Academy, given the Academy’s disdain for the commercially accessible storyline and Bollywood’s adoration for it. But Monsoon Wedding is a collaborative effort between India, the U.S., Italy, France, and Germany, reflected in its heretical demands of accountability against a tradition of bystanding.

Why They Deserved a Nomination

Monsoon was right up the Academy’s alley—Mira Nair’s Salaam Bombay! even being nominated for International Feature twelve years prior. As Nair was praised worldwide for creating a holistically Indian film beloved by Western art critics, even winning the Golden Lion at Venice, the Oscars felt her achievement wasn’t monumental enough to justify a nod. Rent/Buy on Prime Video

7 Niki Caro - Whale Rider (2002)

At thirteen, Keisha Castle-Hughes became the then-youngest actor ever nominated for Best Actress for her gut-wrenching performance in Whale Rider, in which she portrayed a Māori girl who dreams of becoming the chief of her tribe despite the position being held only by males. Roger Ebert recognized the film on his Top 10 of the Year list, calling the drama, “fresh, observant, tough” and “genius.”

Why They Deserved a Nomination

Caro was one of the few to put New Zealand on the international cinematic map since The Piano did in 1993, but the Academy was focused on the other Kiwi directors shocking the world: Peter Jackson and The Lord of the Rings trilogy. As the Academy likes to annually acknowledge one country’s foreigner at a time due to its binding Exclusion Acts, Caro and Frodo weren’t allowed to share the spotlight, and this mesmerizing and unapologetically indigenous film got Boromir’d before it could get its fair praises. Rent/Buy on Prime Video

6 Ava DuVernay - Selma (2014)

Chronicling the gripping events surrounding the Selma to Montgomery marches in 1965, during which Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. (David Oyelowo) courageously sought to secure equal voting rights along with his followers, Selma shines a light on the turbulent three months the revered activist spent campaigning and the profound effect it had on American history. Ava DuVernay helped tell the harrowing true story of the protest marches, which resulted in President Lyndon Johnson signing the Voting Rights Act of 1965 in the monumental and groundbreaking moment.

Related: 10 Great Films That Fight for Civil Rights

Why They Deserved a Nomination

DuVernay's film expertly and profoundly depicted King's noble quest for equality, captivating audiences and critics and earning widespread praise for the emotionally stirring drama. Not only did Selma attract acclaim for the director's steadfast approach to storytelling as well as Oyelowo's phenomenal outing as the beloved visionary, it received a highly-coveted A+ CinemaScore from audiences and won both the Oscar and Golden Globe Award for Best Original Song. BBC.com wrote in their glowing review, "Directed with confidence by Ava DuVernay, it's a movie about how King changed America by having the canny political genius to show the country an image of itself that it could not bear." Stream on Paramount +

5 Dee Rees - Mudbound (2017)

If someone is looking to lie down on the floor for a minute: in 2017, Dee Rees became the first Black woman nominated for Adapted Screenplay and Rachel Morrison became the first woman nominated for Cinematography. Mudbound is a spellbinding achievement nominated for four Oscars total, showcasing the immense racial differences of returning World War II vets’ experiences.

Why They Deserved a Nomination

Mudbound is gruesome, unafraid, painful to endure, and has a beautiful love story — everything the Academy will rip out their seats for in a war movie. For its success at converting Oscarbait into bona fide quality, the fact that the Academy instead nominated two other WW2 films for Best Picture (Dunkirk and Darkest Hour) among a whopping seven other films revealed that the topic wasn’t out of style, but this new and acclaimed look at Black soldiers was to be dismissed for more palatable traditions. Stream on Netflix

4 Lynne Ramsay - You Were Never Really Here (2017)

To be clear, any Lynne Ramsay movie could be here—Ramsay is one of the most talented geniuses to ever fiddle with a lens. But You Were Never Really Here is on a very short list of the greatest achievements in modern cinema, closely tied to Parasite, Phantom Thread, The Social Network, Uncut Gems, and another film mentioned below. You Were Never Really Here may well be at the top of that list.

Why They Deserved a Nomination

In 2017, its screenplay won at Cannes alongside Joaquin Phoenix’s performance, and then suddenly, the movie disappeared off the face of the earth. People rarely, if ever, saw marketing for its brutal portrayal of PTSD and child trafficking. But if some haven’t seen the film at all, as clearly, Academy voters did not, this is their sign to discover one of the greatest movies made since Mank hated Hearst. Stream on Prime Video

3 Lulu Wang - The Farewell (2019)

For many Americans, Chinese cinema has long revolved around kung fu—the closest geographic comparison in dramatic filmmaking being Hong Kong’s Wong Kar-wai or South Korea’s Bong Joon-ho and Park Chan-wook. For Lulu Wang to bring a Chinese-American character to China was for her to bring the audience in tow, the West largely alien to modern PRC customs and experiences. The A24 film was acclaimed with a 97% Rotten Tomatoes rating, winning Awkwafina a deserved Golden Globe for her bewitching performance (revolving around her using her actual cadence).

Why They Deserved a Nomination

To claim that the Oscars dismissed the film as a political gesture against China doesn’t hold water given their decorations for Chloé Zhao’s Nomadland the very next year—this film broke the tiny, new Iron Curtain between Chinese and American dramas. The AFI, the Globes, the Spirit Awards, the National Board of Review—every major indicator of an imminent Oscar darling celebrated The Farewell, but ultimately the Academy felt Wang didn’t deserve their attention. While 2019 was a stacked year, it is hard to argue that the movie from a filmmaker who took comedic star Awkwarfina and gave her an incredibly moving dramatic role is a snub. Stream on Netflix

2 Céline Sciamma - Portrait of a Lady on Fire (2019)

This was the aforementioned movie also on the list of modern marvels. Céline Sciamma takes a contemporary subgenre that has already shown symptoms of repetitiveness — the historical, gay romance — and breathes so much soft life into it that it actually ignites. Portrait of a Lady on Fire centers on 18th-century French folks making art and being gay, the PB&J of modern times, and sculpts a world so distinctly feminine and secluded that the two hours you spend there are more of a furlough than an exploration.

Why They Deserved a Nomination

The masterwork, like You Were Never Really Here, won for its screenplay at Cannes and was up for the Palme d’Or—thus beginning its regular treat of losing to Parasite. France chose Les Misérables over it for their International Feature contender, which was understandable given Misérables won the Jury Prize at Cannes, an arbitrary step over Portrait’s Queer Palm. Ultimately, Portrait’s folly was that it was one of the greatest films in modern history pitted against its beloved twin brother, but for it to be disregarded in the Directing category is one of the repeated signals that the Oscars truly don’t know what they’re doing. Stream on Hulu

1 Janicza Bravo - Zola (2021)

Read Our Review

As maybe the first film adapted from a Twitter thread, Zola follows a Detroit dancer taking a trip to Florida for a chance at a miniature fortune—as disputed truth becomes more thrilling than perfected fiction. But what now seems to get disregarded as a novelty gag, making a movie from Twitter, undermines that Janicza Bravo's direction here is some of the most daring in recent history, is absolutely brilliant and innovative in its integration of social media sights and sounds (something a prior half-generation of filmmaking whiffed at recreating time and again due to social media being their learned language and Bravo having fluency).

Why They Deserved a Nomination

It's didactic in its goals and executions: it’s about laughing at ridiculous and human behaviors in their Chekhovian self-centeredness, it’s about the unflinching validation of sex work as a responsible and lucrative profession, especially when performed by responsible and lucrative professionals, and it’s about the appropriation of Black culture stemming from an incorrect assumption that financial insecurity means filthy means disenfranchisement.

Zola’s magic is in how it takes a real story from the gutters of working people’s own creative realm and promotes it into a cinematic fairytale while maintaining that the excellence of the story is not marred by its genesis but founded by it—and like most great movies, will live much longer than handheld totems will. Rent/Buy on Prime Video