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2023 Oscar nominations overlook women directors

Three prominent female directors: Charlotte Wells; Gina Prince-Bythewood; Sarah Polley.
Charlotte Wells (“Aftersun”), from left, Gina Prince-Bythewood (“The Woman King”) and Sarah Polley (“Women Talking”).
(Christina House / Los Angeles Times (Wells, Polley); Glenn Koenig / For The Times)
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The streak of women winning the directing Oscar is over at two.

It took 82 years for the first woman to win that award (Kathryn Bigelow for “The Hurt Locker”), 11 more for the second woman to win (Chloé Zhao for “Nomadland”) and just one more for the third (Jane Campion last year, for “The Power of the Dog”). But this year’s newly announced field of directing nominees is all male— it’s actually six men for the five slots, counting the “Everything Everywhere All at Once” team known as Daniels, Dan Kwan and Daniel Scheinert.

The other nominees were Todd Field for “Tár,” Martin McDonagh for “The Banshees of Inisherin,” Ruben Ostlund for “Triangle of Sadness” and Steven Spielberg for “The Fabelmans.” The Directors Guild’s lack of female nominees set the stage for the all-male Oscar field.

Perhaps the most notable candidate left out is Sarah Polley, whose film “Women Talking” earned nominations for adapted screenplay and best picture on Tuesday. Other top contenders left out of the Oscar directing race included Charlotte Wells, first-time auteur of “Aftersun”; Gina Prince-Bythewood for “The Woman King”; Chinonye Chukwu for “Till”; and Maria Schrader for “She Said.”

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