Golden Globes 2021: Female directors make history with nominations

Carey Mulligan in Promising Young Woman
(Image credit: Focus Features)

The Golden Globes nominations are out, and they've certainly got people talking. There are some noticeable gaps in the list of nominees that have got Twitter a-buzz, but there's some good news, too.

This year sees the most women ever nominated for Best Director. Regina King is nominated for One Night in Miami, Emerald Fennell for Promising Young Woman, and Chloé Zhao for Nomadland. Zhao is also the first Asian woman to ever be nominated for Best Director. 

This has been a long time coming – Natalie Portman went off-script to criticize the lack of female Best Director nominees when she presented the award at the 2018 awards ceremony, introducing "all the male nominees." 

Ava DuVernay was the last woman to be nominated in this category back in 2015 for her historical drama Selma, while Barbara Streisand is the only woman to ever win the award in 1984 for her musical drama Yentl, in which she also starred.

Alongside Streisand and DuVernay, Jane Campion, Sofia Coppola, and Kathryn Bigelow are the only other female directors to ever be nominated, but this year the women outnumber the men. The rest of the nominees in this year's category are David Fincher for Mank and Aaron Sorkin for The Trial of the Chicago 7.

Meanwhile, Mank picked up the most nominations with six, followed by The Trial Of The Chicago 7 with five. In joint third place, The Father, Nomadland, and Promising Young Woman all received four nominations. On the TV side of things, The Crown was the most nominated series with six. Schitt's Creek came a close second with five nominations.

Make sure you're up to date with the best TV and movie offerings from the past year in the build-up to awards season – check out our lists of the best TV shows of 2020 and the best movies of 2020 to make sure you've seen them all. With so many viewing options to choose from nowadays, you might want to look at our best streaming services guide too. We've got the latest HBO Max prices and Peacock TV costs rounded up for you as well.

Entertainment Writer

I’m an Entertainment Writer here at GamesRadar+, covering everything film and TV-related across the Total Film and SFX sections. I help bring you all the latest news and also the occasional feature too. I’ve previously written for publications like HuffPost and i-D after getting my NCTJ Diploma in Multimedia Journalism.