With representation and inclusivity being discussed by Hollywood studios, film festivals, and awards organizations so often nowadays, whenever there’s an announcement, folks look at it under a much more critical lens. Yesterday, with the Golden Globes announcement, the discussion of representation came up yet again when it was revealed that the HFPA nominated five men for Best Director and seemingly “snubbed” female filmmakers such as Greta Gerwig, Lulu Wang, and others.
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But according to Hollywood Foreign Press Association president Lorenzo Soria and Golden Globes executive producer Barry Adelman (via Variety), there’s no foul play involved with picking the nominees for Best Director. And as with every other year, there are always folks left out.
“What happened is that we don’t vote by gender. We vote by film and accomplishment,” Soria said.
“Every year, somebody gets left out,” Adelman added. “There’s so much talent going on, maybe we need to expand the categories so more people can be part of it. I also think that if you look at some of the other things…a lot of the big television shows are created by women, so I think across the board there is a good representation. Maybe in a couple of those categories, we wish it could be a little different. Who knows what will happen next year.”
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While you have to give credit to Adelman for at least offering up an idea as to how to be more inclusive with the Globes nominations, it still doesn’t really offer any sort of consolation for the various female directors that created incredible works of art in 2019. As pointed out by “Honey Boy” filmmaker Alma Har’el, after the nominations were announced, there was no shortage of female filmmakers that could have easily been included in the Best Director category.
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And as mentioned yesterday, this isn’t the first time the Globes have come under fire for including only men in the Best Director category. Famously, back in 2018, Natalie Portman called the HFPA out while on stage presenting the Best Director trophy.
We’ll have to see if changes are made for the 2020 announcement.
