DIRECTOR’S CHAIR : 1--You May Not Believe the First Part. : 2--The Second Part Has the Good News.

In the entire 60-plus years that Academy Awards have been handed out, only one female director--Italy’s Lina Wertmuller for “Seven Beauties”--has ever been nominated for best director.

Such notable women filmmakers as Dorothy Arzner and Ida Lupino have been shut out of the Oscar nominations. More recently, those overlooked by Oscar include Randa Haines for “Children of a Lesser God,” which received four nominations including best picture and won a best actress Oscar for Marlee Matlin, and Penny Marshall for “Big” and last year’s “Awakenings.”

But this year, there is already talk around Hollywood that not only will a woman director be nominated, but for the first time in the academy’s history, there could be several women nominated. Heading the list of contenders are Jodie Foster for “Little Man Tate,” Martha Coolidge for “Rambling Rose” and Barbra Streisand for “The Prince of Tides.”

According to the Hollywood Reporter’s Oscar-watcher, Robert Osborne, Foster has the inside track. “I think the film has the best shot,” says Osborne, author of “Sixty Years of Oscar.” “Jodie is very well-liked and the film is getting tremendous attention. It also helps that she’s a child of the movie business.” But, he adds, “a lot will depend on the business that the film does between now and when the nominating takes place.”

As for Streisand and “Prince of Tides,” Osborne feels she might not have that easy of a time, although he says it has nothing to do with her work behind the camera. “She conjures up such strong feelings within people, particularly in show business,” he explains. “People are so impassioned about her one way or the other and they don’t look at her with clear judgment. If people in this town had looked at her with an unprejudiced view several years ago, she probably would’ve been nominated for ‘Yentl.’ ”

Of all the candidates for nominations, Osborne thinks “Rambling Rose” is the long shot. “The film is not turning into the blockbuster that people thought it would,” he says. “Unfortunately that makes a difference.”

Osborne also feels that the women directors’ chances for nominations will depend on how the other Christmas films, particularly Steven Spielberg’s “Hook,” Barry Levinson’s “Bugsy” and Martin Scorsese’s “Cape Fear,” turn out. “It’s still a male-dominated club,” Osborne says. “If any or all of them are well-received, it will make the field much more competitive.”

Rachel Talalay, who this summer made her directing debut with the successful “Freddy’s Dead: The Final Nightmare,” is one who’ll be watching. “If there aren’t nominations for woman directors, then you can say they got ripped off,” she says. “It’s going to be much more evident than it has been in the past.”