The Golden Globes Nominate Multiple Women For Best Director For The First Time Ever

Only five women have been nominated for best director in the show’s 77-year history, including only one winner.

Chloe Zhao (L), Regina King (C), Emerald Fennell (R) have all been nominated in the Golden Globes' Best Director category — a first for the award show. | Getty Images
Chloe Zhao (L), Regina King (C), Emerald Fennell (R) have all been nominated in the Golden Globes' Best Director category — a first for the award show. | Getty Images

The nominations for the 2021 Golden Globes were unveiled Wednesday, prompting expected criticism of snubs and misses. But the Best Director category made history this year by having more than one woman nominee for the first time ever. (Really.)

Regina King, Chloe Zhao, and Emerald Fennell were all nominated for the Golden Globes’ Best Director, Motion Picture category for their films, “One Night In Miami,” “Nomadland,” and “Promising Young Woman,” respectively. Women nominees also outnumbered the category’s male nominees: Aaron Sorkin for “The Trial Of The Chicago 7” and David Fincher for “Mank.”

According to multiple reports, the Golden Globes have never nominated more than one woman for best director since the award show’s inception in 1944. The only woman to ever win a Golden Globe for Best Director is Barbra Streisand in 1984 for her film “Yentl.” Only four other women have ever been nominated for the category: Jane Campion in 1994, Sofia Coppola in 2004, Kathryn Bigelow in 2010 and 2013, and Ava DuVernay in 2015.

Zhao is also the first woman of Asian descent to be nominated in the category.

The director category for both the Golden Globes and the esteemed Academy Awards has historically been dominated by white men. Only five women have been nominated for best director in the Oscars’ 92-year history, and only one woman has ever won: Kathryn Bigelow for “The Hurt Locker.”

Despite the award show’s triumph in nominating multiple women for best director, many critics have pointed out the snubs, including Michaela Coel’s “I May Destroy You” and Spike Lee’s “Da 5 Bloods,” which received no nominations.

The Golden Globe Award Show is set to virtually take place on February 28 and will be hosted by Amy Poehler and Tina Fey.