Only 9 Women Have Ever Been Nominated for Best Director in Oscars History — Here's Who Won
Only 9 Women Have Ever Been Nominated for Best Director in Oscars History — Here's Who Won
Kate Hogan, Emily KrauserSun, March 15, 2026 at 1:00 PM UTC
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Credit: Dave Benett/Getty; ABC via Getty; Emma McIntyre/Getty
The 2026 Academy Awards are just around the corner.
The ceremony, which airs live on March 15 at 7 p.m. ET on ABC and Hulu, has already made history, as Sinners was nominated a whopping 16 times. However, the nominations also set another record: Chloé Zhao became one of two women (alongside Jane Campion) to ever be nominated for Best Director twice.
Zhao is up for Hamnet, which is based on Maggie O’Farrell’s 2020 novel of the same name and centers on the family of William Shakespeare (Paul Mescal) as they deal with the death of son Hamnet (Jacobi Jupe). Jessie Buckley is also nominated for Best Actress.
Zhao is one of just nine women who have ever been nominated for Best Director. After the Academy Awards' first ceremony in 1929, it took until 1976 for Lina Wertmüller to be the first woman nominated in the category. In 2004, Kathryn Bigelow made history when she became the first woman to take home the award.
Here's everything to know about the nine women who have been nominated for Best Director at the Oscars.
01 of 09
Lina Wertmüller, 1976
Lina Wertmüller on the set of 'Pasqualino Settebellezze (Seven Beauties)' (1975) in Naples, ItalyCredit: Santi Visalli/Getty
At the 49th annual Academy Awards, Italian filmmaker Wertmüller was the very first woman nominated for Best Director, for her World War II movie Seven Beauties. In a February 2018 interview with Variety, Wertmüller — who died in 2021 — reflected on the significance of her nomination, saying, "to this day I get thank-you letters from directors who say they have been inspired by my experience."
02 of 09
Jane Campion, 1993 & 2022
Jane Campion in the press room following her Best Director win for 'The Power of the Dog' at the 94th Annual Academy Awards in Hollywood on March 27, 2022Credit: P. Lehman/Future Publishing via Getty
It would be 17 years until another woman was nominated; the honor went to Campion for her classic The Piano. Though she didn't take home Best Director that year, she did win an Oscar for Best Original Screenplay, and stars Holly Hunter and Anna Paquin (then just 11 years old) took home the Best Actress and Best Supporting Actress awards, respectively.
She would make history by becoming the first woman to be nominated twice for the directing award, and at the 2022 ceremony, she took home the prize, winning for Power of the Dog. It was Campion's final win in a streak that included directing honors for the film at the BAFTAs, Golden Globes, Critics' Choice Awards and Directors Guild Awards, in addition to the Silver Lion for best direction at the Venice Film Festival.
Campion's 2022 Oscars honor also marked a two-year winning streak for female directors.
03 of 09
Sofia Coppola, 2003
Sofia Coppola on the set of 'Lost in Translation' (2003)Credit: Yoshio Sato/Focus Features
Ten years later, Sofia Coppola joined the exclusive club when she was nominated for the Bill Murray/Scarlett Johansson favorite, Lost in Translation. Like Campion before her, Coppola — daughter of filmmaker Francis Ford Coppola — lost out on Best Director but did win an Oscar for Best Original Screenplay.
04 of 09
Kathryn Bigelow, 2009
Kathryn Bigelow wins Best Director for 'The Hurt Locker' (2008) at the 82nd Annual Academy Awards in Hollywood, Calif., on March 7, 2010Credit: Jason Merritt/Getty
It was at the 82nd annual Academy Awards when a woman finally won the Best Director Oscar: Bigelow, for her war drama The Hurt Locker.
"It's the moment of a lifetime," Bigelow said in her acceptance speech.
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05 of 09
Greta Gerwig, 2017
Actress Saoirse Ronan (left) and director Greta Gerwig on the set of 'Lady Bird' (2017)Credit: Merie Wallace/A24
Despite Bigelow's big moment, it was eight years until another woman was nominated for Best Director, this time Greta Gerwig for the cult hit Lady Bird. Though the film had five Oscar nominations — and critical acclaim — it was shut out at the ceremony.
"I think that the directors branch [of the Academy] could probably stand to bolster its lady numbers," Gerwig told Variety of the voting pool in February 2020.
06 of 09
Chloé Zhao, 2021 & 2026
Chloe Zhao in the Oscar press room in Los Angeles on April 25, 2021Credit: Chris Pizzello-Pool/Getty
The second woman to win Best Director — and first woman of Asian descent to do so — was Nomadland's Zhao in 2021. In an interview with PEOPLE, Zhao said she hoped her win "helps more people like me get to live their dreams."
Zhao also became the second woman to be nominated twice in the category. She received a nod for Hamnet (2025), making her the only woman up for Best Director in 2026. (The other four directors nominated were Josh Safdie for Marty Supreme, Paul Thomas Anderson for One Battle After Another, Joachim Trier for Sentimental Value and Ryan Coogler for Sinners.)
07 of 09
Emerald Fennell, 2021
(L to R): Carey Mulligan, director Emerald Fennell, Laverne Cox and Bo Burnham on the set of 'Promising Young Woman' (2020)Credit: Merie Weismiller Wallace/Focus Features
Not only was 2021 special because of Zhao's win, but it also marked the first time two of the five Best Director nominees were female: Promising Young Woman director Emerald Fennell was up for the honor, too, and took home the Oscar for Best Original Screenplay.
08 of 09
Justine Triet, 2024
Justine Triet at NEON Celebrates the Academy Awards at the Hollywood Athletic Club i L.A. on March 10, 2024Credit: John Salangsang/Variety via Getty
French writer and director Justine Triet was nominated for Anatomy of a Fall, which she also co-wrote; she did not nab the director win that year (that went to Christopher Nolan for Oppenheimer) but she still took home a trophy for Best Original Screenplay.
Of her nomination, Triet said, "I was surprised because there are no more women beside me. So of course, I’m so, so lucky and very proud of all these things ... It was not a dream because I could not imagine."
09 of 09
Coralie Fargeat, 2025
Coralie Fargeat at the Andre Bazin - Cahiers Du Cinema Prize at La Coupole in Paris on Dec. 12, 2024Credit: Francois Durand/Getty
Coralie Fargeat, also from France, was the sole woman nominated in 2025 for her buzzy body horror film The Substance (2024).
"This is such amazing news, I was screaming out of joy," she told Good Morning America at the time.
She added of being only the ninth female nominated for the award: "It says a lot about the road we still have to go, and personally I'm extremely proud to be part of these heads and lead. I wanted to be a filmmaker and director since I was 15. That's who I am, that's where I feel free and good and powerful."
Sean Baker ultimately took home the Best Director award for Anora (2024) at the 97th Annual Academy Awards. Anora also beat out The Substance in the Best Original Screenplay, Best Actress and Best Picture categories.
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Source: “AOL Entertainment”
