Awards, Films, News, Women Directors

BAFTA Nominations: For the Fifth Year in a Row, Women Are Shut Out of Best Director Race

“Lady Bird”

BAFTA nominations are in, and for the fifth year in a row, exactly zero women are nominated in the best director category. As Variety reports, the last female director to score a nod was Kathryn Bigelow for “Zero Dark Thirty” in 2013.

The general consensus among critics is that “Lady Bird” writer-director Greta Gerwig is the female director with the best chances of securing an Oscar nomination this year. Not only was Gerwig omitted from the BAFTA’s best director category, the acclaimed coming-of-age story was also snubbed in the best film category. Gerwig did receive a BAFTA nom for best original screenplay, and stars Saoirse Ronan and Laurie Metcalf both scored nods. (On the acting front, it’s worth noting, as Variety does, that of the 20 nominated actors, just two aren’t white: “The Shape of Water’s” Octavia Spencer and “Get Out’s” Daniel Kaluuya.)

Women are completely absent from categories including adapted screenplay, original music, cinematography, and editing.

Two of the five films up for Outstanding Debut by a British Writer, Director, or Producer are helmed by women: Rungano Nyoni’s “I Am Not a Witch” and Lucy Cohen’s “Kingdom of Us.”

The categories recognizing foreign-language films, documentaries, and animated films each feature one film directed or co-directed by a woman: Angelina Jolie’s “First They Killed My Father,” Bonni Cohen and John Shenk’s “An Inconvenient Sequel,” and Dorota Kobiela and Hugh Welchman’s “Loving Vincent,” respectively.

Some women received multiple nominations. Sarah Greenwood and Katie Spencer scored two nods in the production design category for their collaborations on “Beauty and the Beast” and “Darkest Hour,” and Jacqueline Durran is up for her work in those same films in the costume design category.

“Absolutely Fabulous” actress Joanna Lumley will host the ceremony, which will be held February 18 in London.

Check out the women nominees below. List adapted from Variety.

2017 BAFTA FILM AWARDS NOMINATIONS
(presented in 2018)

LEADING ACTRESS
ANNETTE BENING Film Stars Don’t Die in Liverpool
FRANCES McDORMAND Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri
MARGOT ROBBIE I, Tonya
SALLY HAWKINS The Shape of Water
SAOIRSE RONAN Lady Bird

SUPPORTING ACTRESS
ALLISON JANNEY I, Tonya
KRISTIN SCOTT THOMAS Darkest Hour
LAURIE METCALF Lady Bird
LESLEY MANVILLE Phantom Thread
OCTAVIA SPENCER The Shape of Water

OUTSTANDING DEBUT BY A BRITISH WRITER, DIRECTOR OR PRODUCER
I AM NOT A WITCH Rungano Nyoni (Writer/Director), Emily Morgan (Producer)
KINGDOM OF US Lucy Cohen (Director)

FILM NOT IN THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE
FIRST THEY KILLED MY FATHER Angelina Jolie, Rithy Panh

DOCUMENTARY
AN INCONVENIENT SEQUEL Bonni Cohen, Jon Shenk

ANIMATED FILM
LOVING VINCENT Dorota Kobiela, Hugh Welchman, Ivan Mactaggart

ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY
LADY BIRD Greta Gerwig
THE SHAPE OF WATER Guillermo del Toro, Vanessa Taylor

PRODUCTION DESIGN
BEAUTY AND THE BEAST Sarah Greenwood, Katie Spencer
BLADE RUNNER 2049 Dennis Gassner, Alessandra Querzola
DARKEST HOUR Sarah Greenwood, Katie Spencer

COSTUME DESIGN
BEAUTY AND THE BEAST Jacqueline Durran
DARKEST HOUR Jacqueline Durran
I, TONYA Jennifer Johnson

MAKE UP & HAIR
DARKEST HOUR David Malinowski, Ivana Primorac, Lucy Sibbick, Kazuhiro Tsuji
I, TONYA Deborah La Mia Denaver, Adruitha Lee
WONDER Naomi Bakstad, Robert A. Pandini, Arjen Tuiten

SOUND
BABY DRIVER Tim Cavagin, Mary H. Ellis, Julian Slater

SPECIAL VISUAL EFFECTS
STAR WARS: THE LAST JEDI Nominees tbc
WAR FOR THE PLANET OF THE APES Nominees tbc

BRITISH SHORT ANIMATION
POLES APART Paloma Baeza, Ser En Low

BRITISH SHORT FILM
AAMIR Vika Evdokimenko, Emma Stone, Oliver Shuster

EE RISING STAR AWARD (voted for by the public)
FLORENCE PUGH
TESSA THOMPSON

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