Todd Phillipsโ โJokerโ scored a leading 11 Oscar nominations on Monday, including best picture, best director for Phillips and best actor for Joaquin Phoenix. Martin Scorseseโs โThe Irishman,โ Quentin Tarantinoโs โOnce Upon a Time in Hollywoodโ and Sam Mendesโ โ1917โ followed close behind with 10 nods a piece. Those films, along with โFord v Ferrari,โ โJojo Rabbit,โ โLittle Women,โ โMarriage Storyโ and โParasiteโ will compete for best picture.
Female filmmakers were entirely shut out of the best director race. Along with Phillips, the nominees include Scorsese for โThe Irishman,โ Mendes for โ1917,โ Tarantino for โOnce Upon a Time in Hollywoodโ and Bong Joon Ho for โParasite.โ Greta Gerwig (โLittle Womenโ), Kasi Lemmons (โHarrietโ), Lulu Wang (โThe Farewellโ) and Lorene Scafaria (“Hustlers”) were all overlooked by the Academy. Only five women have ever been nominated for director, and only one, Kathryn Bigelow (โThe Hurt Lockerโ) has ever won the prize. Issa Rae, who had been enlisted to read off the nominees, made a biting nod to their exclusion after the directing contenders were unveiled.
Until โHarrietโ star Cynthia Erivo was announced as a nominee for best actress, it was looking increasingly likely that the Oscars were heading for a repeat of the #OscarsSoWhite controversy that drove the Academy to aggressively begin diversifying its membership four years ago. Instead, Erivo saved the Academy from the embarrassment of yet another slate of all-white acting nominees โ but just barely. Awkwafina (“The Farewell”), Jennifer Lopez (“Hustlers”), Eddie Murphy (“Dolemite Is My Name”), Zhao Shuzhen (“The Farewell”), Lupita Nyongโo (“Us”), Alfre Woodard in (โClemencyโ), Jamie Foxx in (โJust Mercyโ) and the cast of “Parasite” failed to earn nominations.