The vigorous campaign by high-ranking female producers and journalists to badger and guilt-trip industry males into nominating Greta Gerwig‘s Little Women for this or that award has once again come up short. Or at least has stalled in front of the locked gates of the Director’s Guild of America.
The five nominees for the top DGA prize are Martin Scorsese for The Irishman, Quentin Tarantino for Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, Bong Joon-ho for Parasite, Sam Mendes for 1917 and Taika Waititi for Jojo Rabbit.
The general consensus is that Waititi took what would (or should) have been Gerwig’s slot. So does Gerwig defy the odds and somehow luck out with an Academy Best Director nomination for Little Women? Or is this all she wrote? You tell me. I suspect it’s probably a wash for Gerwig from this point on.
The DGA guys have, however, paid tribute to three female filmmakers — Mati Diop for Atlantics, Alma Ha’rel for Honey Boy and Melina Matsoukas for Queen & Slim — in the first-time feature film award category.