Will there be any female Best Director nominees at the 2025 Oscars? These Experts say yes

Last year, there was a massive uproar when “Barbie” filmmaker Greta Gerwig was left off of the Best Director lineup at the Oscars, despite the blockbuster movie reaping eight total nominations including Best Picture and Best Adapted Screenplay (for Gerwig and Noah Baumbach). “Anatomy of a Fall” helmer Justine Triet, who won the prize for Best Original Screenplay, did wind up earning a directing bid, and it was only the ninth such time in Academy Awards history for a woman. So will the upcoming 2025 Oscars include any female Best Director nominees? Let’s consult Gold Derby’s Oscar Experts.

According to the rankings of our pundits from major media outlets, the five most likely directing nominees will all be men: Steve McQueen for “Blitz” (Apple TV+), Sean Baker for “Anora” (Neon), Denis Villeneuve for “Dune: Part Two” (Warner Bros.), Edward Berger for “Conclave” (Focus Features), and Ridley Scott for “Gladiator II” (Paramount Pictures). The next four in line are also males: Greg Kwedar for “Sing Sing” (A24), Todd Phillips for “Joker: Folie à Deux” (Warner Bros.), Jacques Audiard for “Emilia Pérez” (Pathé), and Mike Leigh for “Hard Truths” (Bleecker Street).

But what about that 10th spot for Best Director? Well, it currently goes to Marielle Heller for “Nightbitch” (Searchlight), thanks to a pair of Experts — Thelma Adams (Gold Derby) and Shawn Edwards (WDAF-TV Fox) — placing her in their personal rankings.

If these two pundits are correct, Heller will become the ninth woman to receive a directing nomination (and it’ll be the 10th overall instance) following Lina Wertmuller for “Seven Beauties” (1976), Jane Campion for both “The Piano” (1993) and “The Power of the Dog” (winner in 2021), Sofia Coppola for “Lost in Translation” (2003), Kathryn Bigelow for “The Hurt Locker” (winner in 2009), Gerwig for “Lady Bird” (2017), Chloe Zhao for “Nomadland” (winner in 2020), Emerald Fennell for “Promising Young Woman” (2020), and Triet for “Anatomy of a Fall” (2023).

Heller’s prior three films were all serious contenders on the awards front. “The Diary of a Teenage Girl” (2015) was a critics’ darling, “Can You Ever Forgive Me?” (2018) was nominated for three Oscars for Melissa McCarthy, Richard E. Grant and the screenwriters, and “A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood” (2019) received a bid for Tom Hanks. So it’s only a matter of time before the American director, screenwriter and actress receives her first Oscar nomination. Might “Nightbitch” be that movie?

The comedy horror film will be released in the U.S. on December 6, with Amy Adams starring as a woman whose life takes a wild turn after deciding to delay her career to be a stay-at-home mother. Scoot McNairy co-stars alongside Adams. “Nightbitch” is written and directed by Heller, and it’s developed from the 2021 novel by Rachel Yoder.

Besides Heller, other potential women director nominees to watch out for at the 2025 Oscars are Halina Reijn (“Babygirl”), Sam Taylor-Johnson (“Back to Black”), Andrea Arnold (“Bird”), Audrey Diwan (“Emmanuelle”), Erica Tremblay (“Fancy Dance”), Rachel Morrison (“The Fire Inside”) and Nia DaCosta (“Hedda”).

PREDICT the 2025 Oscar nominees through January 17

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