A Golden Globes First for Women

As many women have been nominated for the Golden Globe for best director this year as in the first 50 years of the 78-year-old prize combined. Chloé Zhao, Nomadland; Regina King, One Night in Miami; and Emerald Fennell, Promising Young Woman, were nominated, along with David Fincher, Mank ; and Aaron Sorkin, The Trial of the Chicago 7. This is the first year that more than one woman has been nominated for that prize, the BBC reports. Before this year, only five women were ever nominated for the prize, two of them twice. Barbra Streisand was the first—and the only winner—with Yentl in 1983. She was nominated again for The Prince of Tides in 1991, followed by Jane Campion for The Piano in 1993, Sofia Coppola for Lost in Translation in 2003, Kathryn Bigelow for the The Hurt Locker and Zero Dark Thirty in 2009 and 2012, and, most recently, Ava DuVernay for Selma in 2014.

Zhao will make history as the first Asian American woman nominated for the prize, and King is the second Black female nominee, after DuVernay, the Los Angeles Times reports. Female filmmakers are still vastly underrepresented in Hollywood, though the picture is gradually improving, reports Variety. Some 16% of the 100 highest-grossing films in 2020 were directed by women, up from 12% in 2019 and 4% in 2018—the year that Natalie Portman quipped "Here are the all-male nominees" before presenting the award. (More nominations can be seen here.)