Despite a female director winning the Best Director Academy Award in each of the previous two years, no women were nominated for the award at the 95th Academy Awards.
A nomination for the Academy Award is determined by those working in relevant fields, and the Best Director snub came as a surprise because of the quality of work released by female directors in the past year, some of which raked multiple nominations in other categories.
Some of the snubbed directors include Gina Prince-Bythewood for The Woman King and Chinonye Chukwu for Till.
The Woman King was completely excluded from the 2023 nominations list as there were no nominations for any of the cast, or the stand-out makeup and costumes, or the Director. None.
According to HuffPost Women, the nominations feel like a step backward from the progress that the Academy has made in recent years, albeit slowly, thanks to a lot of public pressure and scrutiny. The Oscars’ 2023 lack of diversity is hopefully just a blip in the overall upward trajectory.
Amidst the cloud of disappointment is a silver lining as three of our favorite women, Tems, Rihanna, and Angela Bassett were nominated for their performances in the blockbuster sequel, Black Panther: Wakanda Forever.
Angela Bassett became the first actor to be nominated for a role in a Marvel movie with this nomination. The icon has been previously nominated for her role as Tina Turner in 1994’s What’s Love Got to Do With It
Tems is the first Nigerian with an Oscar nomination, as she co-wrote the original song, Lift Me Up with Rihanna who also gained her first Oscar nomination with the song.
