Issa Rae Throws Major Shade After No Female Directors Are Nominated For 2020 Oscars
While announcing the 2020 Oscar nominations, Issa Rae took note of the fact that there were no female directors mentioned in the Best Director category — and she made her feelings about it VERY clear on the live broadcast!
Issa Rae was NOT pleased to hear that not one female was nominated for Best Director at the 2020 Oscars. The actress announced this year’s nominees alongside John Cho, and after the Best Director category was revealed, she shadily said to the camera, “Congratulations to those men.” The nominees in the Best Director category this year went to Martin Scorcese for The Irishman, Todd Phillips for Joker, Sam Mendes for 1917, Quentin Tarantino for Once Upon a Time In Hollywood and Bong Joon-Ho for Parasite.
Despite massive films from the past year being directed by women, not one female was recognized in the category. Some potential nominees included Greta Gerwig for Little Women and Lorene Scafaria for Hustlers. The same issue was buzzed-about when it came to the Golden Globes earlier this month, as not one female director was nominated at that show, either. Meanwhile, there were also no female directors nominated at the Oscars in 2019, and although Greta was up for Lady Bird in 2018, she lost to Guillermo del Toro, who directed The Shape of Water.
In fact, after more than 90 years, only ONE woman has won Best Director at the Oscars: Kathryn Bigelow, who took home the honor for directing The Hurt Locker in 2009. The backlash was immediate after the nominations were read, with viewers flooding Twitter with angry messages directed at the Academy. Clearly, Issa led the way for a bunch of very pissed off fans!
Issa Rae mandando a real pic.twitter.com/Ai2QqEtBXX
— Pedro Tobias (@pedromtobias) January 13, 2020
The Academy has not yet responded to the criticism from Issa and viewers on social media. When the same issue rose at the Golden Globes, the president of the Hollywood Foreign Press Association released the following statement: What happened is that we don’t vote by gender, we vote by film and accomplishment.”