Charlize Theron addresses "incredibly frustrating" absence of Golden Globes nominations for female directors
The 77th Golden Globe awards nominees were announced yesterday morning, and while every list of awards nominees can (and will) be found lacking in certain areas, the Globes’ omissions were particularly glaring. Not a single female filmmaker was nominated for Best Director, and women were shut out of the other three major categories: Best Screenplay and both Best Motion Picture awards. Speaking with the Los Angeles Times about her own nomination for her role in Bombshell, Charlize Theron addressed the Hollywood Foreign Press Association’s failure to recognize the female filmmakers behind some of this year’s best films. Theron, who plays former Fox News anchor Megyn Kelly in the upcoming film, called the HFPA’s neglect “incredibly frustrating”:
It’s tough. It’s really, really tough. And I think it gets really frustrating when we we have to remember that women directors, especially, are just trying to get their numbers up. They represent 10% of our directors in the industry, and when you have a good year like we had this year with such great work, it is incredibly frustrating. No woman wants to get nominated because it’s the right thing to do. It’s really, really ridiculous. It’s not cool. It’s really hard, and I think it’s unfair, and it’s why we can’t stop this fight. We gotta keep making noise until we’re heard and these stories get recognized.
And while Theron is certainly honored to have been nominated (and why shouldn’t she be?), it’s worth remembering who controls the Golden Globes (a group of 90 journalists)—an annual awards ceremony that shouldn’t be taken too seriously. Honey Boy director Alma Har’el also addressed the Globes nominations on Twitter, where she noted, “These are not our people and they do not represent us”:
Har’el went on to list several of the women behind some of 2019's best films, like Lulu Wang (The Farewell), Lorene Scafaria (Hustlers), Céline Sciamma (Portrait Of A Lady On Fire), and Mati Diop (Atlantics)—to name just a few: