Will Any Female Directors Receive Nominations for the 2025 Oscars?

It remains uncertain whether any female directors will receive a nomination for Best Director at the Oscars in 2025. The Best Director Oscar has been part of the annual Academy Awards since the ceremony's inception in 1929, initially presented as two separate awards for "Comedy" and "Drama" categories. While the Academy Awards offer prizes in a wide and expanding array of categories, Best Director is regarded as one of the "Big Five" awards, alongside Best Picture, Best Actor, Best Actress, and Best Screenplay Oscars.

Throughout the years, several distinguished filmmakers have received the award, such as Steven Spielberg (Schindler's List, Saving Private Ryan), Clint Eastwood (Unforgiven, Million Dollar Baby), Billy Wilder (The Lost Weekend, The Apartment), Ang Lee (Brokeback Mountain, Life of Pi), and Frank Capra (You Can't Take It With You, Mr. Deeds Goes to Town, It Happened One Night). As of now, the nominees for the 2025 Best Director Oscar remain undisclosed. Due to delays caused by the Los Angeles wildfires, the deliberation process was postponed by two days, with the official nominations now scheduled to be announced on January 19, 2025.

Currently, the leading contenders for the Best Director award in the 2025 Oscar nominations are all male. These frontrunners have been identified through nominations and victories at various other awards. Notably, the most significant directors to emerge this season include Brady Corbet for The Brutalist (who secured the Golden Globe), Sean Baker for Anora (nominated for both a Critics' Choice Award and a Golden Globe after the film won the Palme d'Or at Cannes), Jacques Audiard for Emilia Pérez (also a Critics' Choice and Golden Globe nominee), and Edward Berger for Conclave (nominated at both ceremonies as well).

There are numerous additional male directors in contention, having directed films that have performed well this season. This group includes James Mangold (A Complete Unknown), Denis Villeneuve (Dune: Part Two), Greg Kwedar (Sing Sing), RaMell Ross (Nickel Boys), Jon M. Chu (Wicked), among others. Chu, in particular, might be a strong contender because Wicked has garnered various nominations, including 11 Critics' Choice nods and four Golden Globe nominations, winning one. Since only five directors will ultimately be nominated, the 2025 Oscars present a particularly competitive field.

Women may face challenges in securing Best Director nominations in 2025, as the Oscars often overlook female directors. Over the nearly 100-year history of the ceremony, only three women—Kathryn Bigelow (The Hurt Locker), Chloé Zhao (Nomadland), and Jane Campion (The Power of the Dog)—have won Best Director. Additionally, six other women have been nominated: Lina Wertmüller (Seven Beauties), Jane Campion (The Piano), Sofia Coppola (Lost in Translation), Justine Triet (Anatomy of a Fall), Greta Gerwig (Lady Bird), and Emerald Fennell (Promising Young Woman), making a total of just eight individual women.

Although the Best Director category this year is primarily dominated by men, a number of women have directed critically acclaimed films that are doing well. This includes the remaining duo of Golden Globe nominees from the 2025 ceremony, Coralie Fargeat for The Substance and Payal Kapadia for All We Imagine as Light. Nora Fingscheidt with The Outrun and Halina Reijn with Babygirl might also be contenders, given their recent success in the awards season. Other female directors with notable 2024 films who might be considered include Rose Glass (Love Lies Bleeding), Marielle Heller (Nightbitch), and Zoë Kravitz (Blink Twice).

As a result, there might be at least one female nominee, possibly even two, at the 2025 Oscars. Currently, according to the odds on GoldDerby, there is one female filmmaker in the Top 5 of likely Best Director candidates (Coralie Fargeat at No. 5), another woman in the Top 10 (Payal Kapadia at No. 8), and one more in the Top 20 (In the Summers' Alessandra Lacorazza Samudio at No. 20). Given these rankings and the recent nominees in other awards, men might not completely dominate in 2025 after all.