Female filmmakers were again shut out of the Best Director Oscar category.
From Lynne Ramsay’s “You Were Never Really Here” (an Amazon release that received a Cannes screenplay prize) to Debra Granik’s “Leave No Trace” (a Sundance entry recognized by the Los Angeles Film Critics Assn. last month), great work from deserving women was certainly on the table.
Ramsay, in fact, was — along with “BlacKkKlansman” helmer Spike Lee — the most laureled filmmaker on the critics’ awards circuit after Alfonso Cuarón.
Marielle Heller (“Can You Ever Forgive Me?,” a Telluride Film Festival favorite) and Chloe Zhao (“The Rider,” named the year’s best film by the National Society of Film Critics) were other acclaimed players that arguably deserved to make the lineup. Tamara Jenkins (“Private Life”), Karyn Kusama (“Destroyer”), Mimi Leder (“On the Basis of Sex”) and Josie Rourke (“Mary Queen of Scots”) were options as well.
