As Natalie Portman once said, here are the all male nominees.
The 2020 Golden Globe nominations were announced on Monday morning, and for the fifth consecutive year, no women have been nominated for Best Director.
The nominees for Best Director are Martin Scorsese for The Irishman, Todd Phillips for Joker, Sam Mendes for 1917, Bong Joon-ho for Parasite and Quentin Tarantino for Once Upon A Time...in Hollywood. All of those films were also nominated in the various Best Picture categories.
Despite their absence from the Best Director list, there were a wide range of noteworthy films directed by women this year, and many of them did receive nominations.
Little Women, directed by Greta Gerwig, and Harriet, directed by Kasi Lemmons, both snagged Best Actress, Drama, nominations for Saoirse Ronan and Cynthia Erivo, respectively. The Farewell, directed by Lulu Wang, is nominated for Best Foreign Language Film and its star, Awkwafina, is nominated for Best Actress, Comedy/Musical.
The Fred Rogers biopic It's A Beautiful Day In The Neighborhood, directed by Marielle Heller, snagged a nomination for Tom Hanks. Hustlers—one of the biggest box office hits of the year—directed by Lorene Scafaria landed Jennifer Lopez a Best Supporting Actress nomination. And Olivia Wilde's directorial debut, Booksmart, got Beanie Feldstein her first ever nomination in the Best Actress in a Motion Picture, Musical or Comedy category.
Clearly, it was a year dominated with stories about women told by women. And yet, the last time a woman was nominated for Best Director at the Golden Globes was in 2015, when Ava DuVernay was nominated for Selma. Barbra Streisand remains the only woman to ever win Best Director at the Golden Globes. She won for Yentl in 1984.
Pointing out the consistent exclusion of women and people of color at the Golden Globes, director Alma Har'el—who many feel was deserving of a nomination for her work on the Shia LaBeouf-led Honey Boy—called out the HFPA in a series of tweets.
As she wrote, "Good morning to everyone that's writing me about the #goldenglobes. I feel you but know this. . I was on the inside for the first time this year. These are not our people and they do not represent us. Do not look for justice in the awards system. We are building a new world."
In another tweet, she listed the names of other snubbed female directors. "Lulu Wang, Mati Diop, Greta Gerwig, Olivia Wilde, Lorene Scafaria, Marielle Heller, Melina Matsoukas, Chinonye Chukwu, Céline Sciamma," Har'el said. "Made films this year that reached people and touched them. That's our awards. No one can take that away."
And her powerful thread wasn't done there. She encouraged people to continue building the new world she spoke of. "Keep fighting for more women & POC behind the camera by supporting their films," the director said. "Don't make your end game the political money that trades hands in the form of movie campaigns for people who can't see us and recognize us."
Lastly, Har'el thanked journalists who covered the female-made films of 2019. "Thank you to all the press and people who write and cover films in awards season!" she tweeted. "You are helping us get to new audiences and tell our stories. And for that it's worth it all @FREETHEWORK."
Har'el is not alone in her criticism. At the 2018 Golden Globes (the same year Portman shaded the Hollywood Foreign Press with her "all male nominees" line), Streisand criticized the award show for not honoring female directors more often.
Speaking of her historic win, she said, "That was 1984. That was 34 years ago. Folks, time's up! We need more women directors and more women to be nominated for Best Director. There are so many films out there that are so good directed by women."
Unfortunately, the world will have to continue to wait to see another woman win Best Director.
The 2020 Golden Globes will broadcast live on NBC on Jan. 5 starting at 8 p.m.
(E! and NBC are both part of NBCUniversal.)