Oscar Nominated Female Directors: 5 films of the best films by women shortlisted for the Academy Award for Directing

Greta Gerwig is currently the toast of the film industry, with her latest film ‘Barbie’ breaking box office records, but she’s one of only a few female directors to have been recognised by the Academy Awards.

Only eight films directed by women have ever been nominated for the Oscar for Best Director – starting with Lina Wertmüller for her 1975 film ‘Seven Beauties’ – and just three have taken home the trophy in the awards’ 94 year history.

Here are five of the best, and where you can stream them.

The Power of the Dog (Netflix)

Jane Campion is the only woman to have been nominated for the Academy Award for Best Director more than once.

New Zealand’s Jane Campion is the only woman to have been nominated for Best Director twice, earning her first nod for lush period drama ‘The Piano’ in 1993. Nearly 30 years later she won the award with this atmospheric Western about about two warring brothers on a ranch in 1920s Montana.

Nomadland (Disney+)

Chloé Zhao also took home the golden statuette in 2021, becoming the first woman of Asian descent to triumph. Frances McDormand also won the Best Actress Oscar for her performance as a widow who turns to a nomadic lifestyle after losing her job to the Great Recession of the early 2010s.

Promising Young Woman (Sky Cinema)

Previously best known for her role as Patsy Mount in BBC drama ‘Call The Midwife’, British director Emerald Fennell was shortlisted for her pitch-black comedy starring Carey Mulligan. It tells the story of a coffee shop worker who comes up with some inventive ways to punish the man who sexually assaulted her friend. Not one for the faint-hearted.

Lady Bird (Lionsgate+)

Greta Gerwig may have only made three films but they’ve all had a huge impact, with Barbie looking like being the biggest hit of 2023 and Little Women already a bona fide Christmas classic for which she received a Best Adapted Screenplay Oscar nod. Lady Bird is perhaps the pick of the bunch though – a razor-sharp coming-of-age comedy starring Saoirse Ronan.

Lost In Translation (Amazon Prime)

Sofia Coppola won an Oscar for Best Original Screenplay for her dreamy romantic drama about an actor in the midst of a mid-life crisis. Played by Bill Murray, the washed-up thespian meets Scarlett Johansson’s college graduate while filming a soul-destroying advert in Tokyo. We still don’t know for certain what is said in the last whispered line.