Oscar Nominations: Women Flourish, But Awards Still Dominated By Dudes

So the Academy Award nominees 2010 were announced today. The first eye-popper is a throwback decision to include 10 nominees for Best Picture – double the pool of recent decades – a choice announced by AMPAS president Sid Ganis in June: “The Academy is returning to some of its earlier roots, when a wider field competed for the top award of the year.” In the ’30s and ’40s, between 8 and 12 films were nominated each year for Best Picture.

But while the Academy flaunts its old-timey largesse in one category, this hardly translates to greater inclusion in others. Despite MovieFone’s prediction that female directors might “rule” the 2010 Oscars, women count for 26% of all non gender-specific nominations. Nearly half of these share their nominations with male partners, leaving 14% of nominees women recognized on their own.

Kathryn Bigelow, it has been oft been noted today, is nominated for Best Director – a distinction she shares with just three other female directors in the last 81 years: Lina Wertmüller for “Seven Beauties” in 1976; Jane Campion for “The Piano” in 1993; and Sofia Coppola for “Lost in Translation” in 2003. None, it may go without saying, walked away winners. And it isn’t that women aren’t recognized as great directors, in the past or now. Campion wrote and directed another critically and commercially successful film this year, “Bright Star,” which was nominated only for Costume Design. Lone Scherfig’s “An Education” and Nora Ephron’s “Julie & Julia,” were also acclaimed, but neither were recognized for directing, and only Scherfig’s – along with “The Hurt Locker” – managed to squeeze into the now-gargantuan pool for Best Picture. What gives?

Read New York Times critic Manohla Dargis’s stellar – and fuming – December article on why, despite increased influence in the box office, women are rarely seen – and even more rarely celebrated – as directors. As Dargis says: “I’m not talking about those buff babes who pop up in adolescent fantasies, licking their lips as they lock and load; I’m talking about movies made for and with women. I’m also talking about movies directed by women.”

But hey – wasn’t it just this past weekend that Bigelow won the Director’s Guild of America top prize?  And didn’t somebody say something about that being a near-guarantee of an Academy Award victory? I’m not hanging my head yet. Here’s to Bigelow! And here’s a list of all the fabulous women nominated this year:

Actress in a Leading Role

• Sandra Bullock in “The Blind Side”
• Helen Mirren in “The Last Station”
• Carey Mulligan in “An Education”
• Gabourey Sidibe in “Precious: Based on the Novel ‘Push’ by Sapphire”
• Meryl Streep in “Julie & Julia”

Actress in a Supporting Role

• Penélope Cruz in “Nine”
• Vera Farmiga in “Up in the Air”
• Maggie Gyllenhaal in “Crazy Heart”
• Anna Kendrick in “Up in the Air”
• Mo’Nique in “Precious: Based on the Novel ‘Push’ by Sapphire”

Art Direction

• “The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus” Art Direction: Anastasia Masaro and Dave Warren; Set Decoration: Caroline Smith
• “Sherlock Holmes” Art Direction: Sarah Greenwood; Set Decoration: Katie Spencer
• “The Young Victoria” Art Direction: Patrice Vermette; Set Decoration: Maggie Gray

Costume Design

• “Bright Star” Janet Patterson
• “Coco before Chanel” Catherine Leterrier
• “The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus” Monique Prudhomme
• “Nine” Colleen Atwood
• “The Young Victoria” Sandy Powell

Directing

• “The Hurt Locker” Kathryn Bigelow

Documentary (Feature)

• “Burma VJ” Lise Lense-Møller with Anders Østergaard
• “Food, Inc.” Elise Pearlstein and Robert Kenner
• “The Most Dangerous Man in America: Daniel Ellsberg and the Pentagon Papers” Judith Ehrlich and Rick Goldsmith
• “Which Way Home” Rebecca Cammisa

Documentary (short subject)

• “The Last Truck: Closing of a GM Plant” Julia Reichert and Steven Bognar
• “Music by Prudence” Elinor Burkett and Roger Ross Williams
• “Rabbit à la Berlin” Anna Wydra and Bartek Konopka

Film Editing

• “Inglourious Basterds” Sally Menke

Makeup

• “Star Trek” Mindy Hall, Barney Burman and Joel Harlow
• “The Young Victoria” Jenny Shircore and Jon Henry Gordon

Best Picture

• “District 9” Carolynne Cunningham and Peter Jackson, Producers
• “An Education” Finola Dwyer and Amanda Posey, Producers
• “The Hurt Locker” Nominees to be determined
• “Precious: Based on the Novel ‘Push’ by Sapphire” Sarah Siegel-Magness, Lee Daniels and Gary Magness, Producers

Short Film (Live Action)

• “The Door” Juanita Wilson and James Flynn

Sound Editing

• “Avatar” Gwendolyn Yates Whittle and Christopher Boyes

Sound Mixing

• “Star Trek” Anna Behlmer, Andy Nelson and Peter J. Devlin

Writing (Adapted Screenplay)

• “District 9” Written by Terri Tatchell and Neill Blomkamp