Streisand ‘Thrilled,’ ‘Disappointed’

Barbra Streisand said that she is “thrilled” about the seven nominations her movie “The Prince of Tides” received, but “disappointed” she was not a nominee for best director.

“I don’t know how they get to the best pictures without nominating the directors,” Streisand said from London, where “Prince of Tides” was given a royal premiere Tuesday benefiting AIDS causes.

The star’s reaction, however, was mild compared to that of Columbia Pictures Chairman Mark Canton, head of the company that distributed the film.

“It is truly shocking that Barbra Streisand was overlooked as a best-director nominee . . . ,” Canton said. He noted that a film receiving seven Oscar nominations “cannot be so distinguished in so many areas unless it directly reflects the vision of its director . . . that fact, combined with the well-deserved best-director nomination she received recently from the Directors Guild, makes this oversight . . . particularly hard to accept.”

Peter Guber, chairman of Sony Pictures Entertainment, agreed.

“Barbra cast the picture with (Nick) Nolte and (Kate) Nelligan, both of whom were nominated,” said Guber, whose Columbia Pictures unit distributed the film. “The academy is honoring her choice of art direction and score. It’s Barbra’s vision which is at the forefront of the process. Who does the academy think is reponsible for the macro-view, the overview? That others were recognized and she wasn’t is unfortunate.”

Streisand has been through this before in the case of her directorial debut with 1983’s “Yentl.” For that film, she won a Golden Globe award as best director, but the movie and her work were ignored by members of the academy when it came Oscar time.

Asked why she thought she was not nominated this year, she said “I have no idea . . . if it is just me in particular. I can’t honestly say that I was wronged in any way, since there are a lot of good movies (in contention).”

She speculated that there might be some resistance to women as directors. “We’re still fighting it. It’s as if a man were allowed to have passion and commitment to his work, but a woman is allowed that feeling for a man, but not her work.”

Times staff writer Elaine Dutka contributed to this report.