The 2021 Golden Globe nominations have made history. Three out of five nominations for Best Director are for women, surpassing the previous record of only one.
Emerald Fennel for Promising Young Woman, Regina King for One Night in Miami… and Chloé Zhao for Nomadland. Although these women have their work cut out for them, as their male opposition (David Fincher for Mank and Aaron Sorkin for The Trial of the Chicago 7) are leading overall nominations, this number of nominations for women is an achievement in itself. Zhao continues to break records, being the first woman of Asian descent nominated in the category.
“only five women have been nominated in this category in the Golden Globes’ 77-year history.”
This achievement is particularly poignant considering that only five women have previously been nominated in this category in the Golden Globes’ illustrious 77-year history. Sofia Coppola, Jane Campion, Ava DuVernay, Katheryn Bigelow and Barbra Streisand are the only women to have previously been nominated in this category, and, notably, only Streisand has won for 1983’s Yentl.
Streisand, the only women to have received two nominations for the category, told The Hollywood Reporter, “To see three women out of five directors be nominated for the Golden Globe makes me very happy. It is long overdue.”
A Pervasive Problem
“only 10.7% of directors in the top 100 grossing films of 2019 were women”
This record-breaking event follows, more recently, Greta Gerwig’s controversial snubbing at the 2020 Globes for Best Director of Little Women in favour of another all-male line-up. Hollywood’s favouritism towards white men in general, and for this category in particular, is a topic that the Globes can’t seem to escape. Women are repeatedly shut out. Natalie Portman famously made an off-script, scathing remark when presenting the Best Director award in 2018, announcing “the all-male nominees”.
This problem doesn’t only plague the Globes, however. Kathryn Bigelow is the only woman to have won an Academy Award for Best Director for her film The Hurt Locker. And, despite making up 70.4% of editors, only 10.7% of directors in the top 100 grossing films of 2019 were women. Even though women make up 51% of moviegoers, if you watched a film in 2019, it was most probably made about, by and for, straight, white men. Evidence shows that men outnumber women two to one in speaking or named roles.
“just four characters from the top 600 grossing films from 2014-2019 featured a trans person”
So, it seems Hollywood as a whole has a long way to go. And, sexist discrimination is not its only problem. A study found that, in 2019, despite 43% of films having a female lead/co-lead, only three of these were women over 45. Furthermore, only 2.3% of characters exhibited disability and 1.4% were LGBGTQ+. Meanwhile, only four characters from the top 600 grossing films from 2014-2019 featured a trans person, and these characters “appeared on screen for two minutes total.” Additionally, there has been no significant increase in the number of BAME characters on screen since 2007.
All of the above statistics are incredibly disheartening to hear. Women, LGBTQ+ people and the BAME community deserve to be represented in film and those who do represent them deserve to be honoured for it.
If the dominating award shows like the Golden Globes and the Academy Awards make no effort to honour marginalised communities for their work, there will be no drive for production companies to make the stories that represent these very communities. The nomination of King, Zhao and Fennel is a step in the right direction, at least.
The Golden Globes is set to be virtually hosted by Amy Poehler and Tina Fey on 28th February.
Nia Thomas
Featured image courtesy of Myke Simon via Unsplash. Image license found here. No changes were made to the image.
Nia Thomas
Nia is a Gender Studies Masters student at the University of Sussex. Having recently graduated with a degree in Political Science, she is keenly interested in current affairs and stories concerning equality and diversity. Away from writing, she is an avid reader and lover of reality TV.