Barbie director Greta Gerwig received her first best director Golden Globe nomination on Monday, following years past in which she was snubbed for her films Lady Bird and Little Women.
Gerwig was nominated alongside Christopher Nolan (Oppenheimer), Celine Song (Past Lives), Martin Scorsese (Killers of the Flower Moon), Bradley Cooper (Maestro) and Yorgos Lanthimos (Poor Things). Gerwig also received a best original screenplay nomination alongside Noah Baumbach for Barbie. In total, Barbie received nine nominations, including best musical or comedy, best actress for Margot Robbie and best supporting actor for Ryan Gosling.
In 2017, a year which saw Patty Jenkins’ Wonder Woman and Dee Rees’ Mudbound hit the big screen, Gerwig didn’t receive a nomination for Lady Bird, despite a best picture comedy or musical nomination. Guillermo del Toro, Martin McDonagh, Christopher Nolan, Ridley Scott and Steven Spielberg received nominations. Natalie Portman, while she was presenting the award to the eventual winner del Toro at the awards show, famously commented on the “all-male nominees.”
Then, in 2019, Gerwig was in the awards circuit with Little Women, but was notably omitted while once again only men were nominated (Scorsese, Quentin Tarantino, Bong Joon-Ho, Sam Mendes and Todd Phillips).
And last year’s crop also once again didn’t include a single woman in a year that saw Sarah Polley’s Women Talking, Gina Prince-Bythewood’s The Woman King and Chinonye Chukwu’s Till. Instead, James Cameron, The Daniels, Martin McDonagh, Baz Luhrmann and Spielberg received nods. This followed the HFPA’s attempt to diversify its voting members. In 2021, however, the organization nominated a record number of women in the category, including Emerald Fennell (Promising Young Woman), Regina King (One Night in Miami) and Chloe Zhao (Nomadland), who would eventually go on to the win the award.
In the history of the Globes, only nine women have been nominated for directing. Barbra Streisand, Chloe Zhao and Jane Campion are the only women who have won the award: Streisand, receiving the award in 1984 for Yentl, became the first woman to win.
In 2014, Gerwig was nominated for her performance in Frances Ha, and in 2018 she received a nod for her Little Women screenplay.
Golden Globes producer Dick Clark Productions is owned by Penske Media Eldridge, a joint venture between Penske Media Corporation and Eldridge that also owns The Hollywood Reporter.
The 81st annual Golden Globe Awards will air live from the Beverly Hilton on CBS and stream on Paramount+ on Sunday, January 7, 2024, at 5 p.m. PT/8 p.m. ET. Though a host has yet to be announced, Emmy-winning producers Glenn Weiss and Ricky Kirshner are set to serve as showrunners with Weiss set to direct.
