All eyes focus on the Academy’s choices during award season. However, viewers were disappointed yet not surprised by the lack of female directors for the third year in a row for the 2020 Oscar nominations. Despite the amount of critically acclaimed films directed by women this year, the Academy overlooked talent by only nominating men for “Best Director.”

It is a well-known feeling for women to be cast aside by their male peers in entertainment. Females have to work twice as hard just to get the same amount of recognition. However, their films are still dismissed and nominated for anything besides the Best Director category. This all-boys club really misses out on the amount of culturally and beautifully diverse cinema that women directed throughout the years.

Here are just a few of the many acclaimed films put out this past year by female directors: The Farewell by Lulu Wang, Little Women by Greta Gerwig, Hustlers by Lorene Scafaria, Honey Boy by Alma Har’el, A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood by Marielle Heller, and many more. Each film exhibited raw depictions of real-life issues. Such as, dealing with the death of a loved one in The Farewell or taking advantage of Wall Street men that exploit women in Hustlers. As well as that, some of the films highlight the idea of women living in a man’s world without proper representation. Despite the validity of these films’ messages, they went unrecognized and the directors’ roles in the industry diminished.

People are mistaken if they believe this is a new trend. Throughout the entirety of its 92 years, the Oscar nominations only recognized five women for the Best Director category. This is a constant trend where females in the industry, especially those of color, appear invisible in the eyes of these so-called “critics.” No women of color have ever received a nomination for Best Director. It raises prevalent concerns of sexism and racism in the film industry. The Academy makes it excruciatingly clear that it does not want to recognize these trailblazing women’s stories. So how should women move past this?

According to VMA professor Kathryn Ramey, “white patriarchal heteronormative values and interests are deeply entrenched and we still don’t know how to work well enough intersectionality to support each. So my best advice for aspiring female directors is to find people you can work with whose values align with your own. Make projects that matter to you. Support each other. And get your work out there. If they won’t give you a seat at the table make another table that shows how irrelevant and archaic their table is.”

Despite the magnitude of the issue, it warms my heart that the media is coming together to help spark some accountability for these award shows. Women aren’t going to continue to sit and allow their work to go unrecognized anymore. This lack of representation brought an uproar on Twitter and many other social media platforms. Some say that this can be solved with more female voting bodies on the academy team. However, equality does not always mean equity. People need to be willing to give women that same fair treatment, marketing, film distribution, and proper representation. In regards to acknowledging the accomplishments of females in the industry, especially women of color, much work needs to be done. Freshman Nadezhda Ryan, an aspiring director, says how “the Academy preaches all of these progressive values but rarely puts them into practice, hence no female director is being nominated this year. It feels like there's this weird culture where women are working on films more and more, but that progress stays behind the camera.”

It is quite unforgivable that the Academy throws its entire weight behind male filmmakers but as soon as it is a female, the line of recognition suddenly blurs.

Many may pull the “but it's not about the award” card but let's all be real that it’s about time that a woman gets recognized for her talent. There is plenty of white cis men that have been rewarded for best director in award season. I think it's time for women to be recognized for something they rightfully deserve. There has been such an increase in the number of films that have and continue to be made by women in the last couple of years, yet the number that gets nominated for Best Director stays the same. Zero.

Let's take down the patriarchy one step at a time because the best director category should not be an all-boys club.

Stop Sleeping on Female Directors