For the first time in the Oscars’ 93-year history, there will be TWO women up for the Best Director award.
That’s right. This has never happened before. In fact, most years we’re lucky if even one woman is nominated in the category.
But this year, it’s all about Chloé Zhao who’s being recognised for her work on Nomadland and Emerald Fennell who’s nominated for her work on Promising Young Woman.
Emerald reacted to the announcement on Twitter:
“Sobbing,” she wrote in her first tweet.
“So proud and grateful to every amazing person who worked on this film. Never going to stop crying,” she wrote in a follow-up message.
Sobbing
— Emerald Fennell (@emeraldfennell) March 15, 2021
She and Chloé are nominated alongside Lee Isaac Chung, Thomas Vinterberg and David Fincher.
Only five other women have ever been nominated in the Best Director category: Lina Wermüller in 1977 for Seven Beauties, Jane Campion in 1994 for The Piano, Sofia Coppola in 2003 for Lost In Translation, Kathryn Bigelow in 2010 for The Hurt Locker and Greta Gerwig in 2018 for Lady Bird.
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And Kathryn Bigelow is the only woman to have won the award.
The Oscars will be held on April 25.
(Feature Image Credit: Vegafi, CC BY-SA 4.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0>, via Wikimedia Commons and DFree/Shutterstock.com)