Sarah Polley and Several Female Filmmakers Snubbed for Best Director Oscar Nods

Sarah Polley Snubbed for Best Director

Sarah Polley may have directed the wonderful film, Women Talking, but she did not receive an Oscar nod for Best Director as was anticipated.

Several high-profile female filmmakers failed to receive Academy Award nominations for Best Director. While Sarah Polley was the most obviously slighted director, Maria Schrader (She Said), Charlotte Wells (Aftersun) and Gina Prince-Bythewood (The Woman King) also got the cold shoulder from Oscar in a surprising turn of events this morning.

Polley’s omission came with the inclusion of Ruben Östlund in the directing category for the surprisingly nominated offbeat movie, Triangle of Sadness. It was clear the other male directing nominees chosen were always shoo-ins: Steven Spielberg (The Fabelmans), Martin McDonagh (The Banshees of Inisherin), Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert (Everything Everywhere All at Once) and Todd Field (Tár). Polley was pegged to get the other directing slot. If she didn’t get the spot, many had expected one of the other aforementioned women to round out the formidable list.

On the bright side, Polley did receive a Best Adapted Screenplay nomination for adapting the novel, Women Talking, to the screen. It was clearly a labor of love for Polley to make such a powerful, groundbreaking picture as the one she turned in this past year. Perhaps, all the performances in the film, Women Talking, cancelled each other out because not a single performer from the film received a nomination for acting. Jessie Buckley and Rooney Mara were among the film’s stars who were pegged to potentially get nods.

The “bright side” of Charlotte Wells’ failure to get an Oscar nomination was the inclusion of the terrific Paul Mescal in the Best Actor category for Aftersun. Wells directed that much loved performance which was the surprise of the Best Actor lineup. Mescal certainly has Wells to thank for getting that turn out of him.

Viola Davis was pegged as a shoo-in for Best Actress for the snubbed Prince Bythewood’s The Woman King but Davis didn’t get the nod in a surprising turn of events which placed Andrea Riseborough in the Best Actress category for her turn in To Leslie. Speaking of snubs, Danielle Deadwyler was also overlooked for a Best Actress nod for her gripping work in Till.

While Maria Schrader’s Harvey Weinstein story was amazingly made, it failed to garner much attention from the Academy. Many blame the poor returns at the box-office for She Said‘s disappointing results at the Oscar nominations.

Polley deserves to win for Best Adapted Screenplay for Women Talking and that will hopefully be her reward for the unfair snub of her work as a director in the wonderfully made picture that currently has audiences across the country talking loudly. See it as soon as possible.

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