There’s been a lot of talk about who didn’t get nominated for the Oscars and should have, and while I’m as disappointed as anyone that Greta Gerwig didn’t get a director nod, she did get nominated for best adapted screenplay, and her costume designer, Jacqueline Durran, was nominated as well. So those are two women that I’m rooting for. (In fact I wrote a review that is pretty much an argument for why Gerwig should win for best adaptation.)
Looking over the other nominations, I noticed the usual gender breakdown, with a lot of women in the art department, but hardly any in the cinematography, special effects, and editing categories — though I was happy to see that this blog’s namesake, Thelma Schoonmaker, was nominated for editing The Irishman.
Here are some other women to watch for this weekend. This isn’t a comprehensive list of all the female nominees (though it’s close), just the nominees whose work I am familiar with from the past year in movies . . .
Julia Reichert co-directed American Factory, which was nominated for best documentary. This was one of my favorite films of the year and the one I would vote for.
Tamara Koteskva co-directed Honeyland, which was nominated twice, for best documentary and best and best international feature.
Petra Costa directed The Edge of Democracy, which was nominated for best documentary.
Hildur Guðnadóttir was nominated for best musical score for Joker, and is the only woman nominated in this category. She won the Golden Globe for it, so maybe she’ll also get the Oscar?
Rachael Tate was one of two editors nominated for sound editing for 1917. She is the only woman nominated in this category, which, thanks to institutional sexism, tends to be male-dominated. (Check out the documentary Making Waves for a detailed look at the history of sound design and how it came to be male-dominated.)
Although there were mixed feelings about Once Upon A Time in Hollywood, (I, for one, did not love it) everyone seems to agree that the production design was perfection. Three women received Oscar nominations for their work on the movie: Arianne Philips, for costume design, Barbara Ling for production design, and Nancy Haigh for set decoration.
Thelma and Alice 