Patty Jenkins is being blunt about the Academy shutting out women from this year’s Best Director nominations.
The Wonder Woman director, 51, shared her thoughts on the subject with Variety on Saturday at the Charles Finch and Chanel pre-Oscars dinner at the Beverly Hills Hotel’s Polo Lounge in Los Angeles.
“I give up, I give up,” she told the outlet about no women nominated for Best Director. “I say that even with all of their push to have diversity. The numbers are just hugely imbalanced of who votes for these things. I sort of just stopped paying attention to it.”
“It’s still going to take a long ways to go,” added Jenkins. “It’s going to take a lot more to really see truly more diverse awards. I really appreciate the efforts that they’re making but we have a long way to go.”
Female directors shut out of the category whose films were nominated in other categories include Charlotte Wells (Aftersun) and Sarah Polley (Women Talking). Gina Prince-Bythewood’s The Woman King, Chinonye Chukwu’s Till and Maria Schrader’s She Said were also not recognized.
“This awards season was an eye-opener,” Prince-Bythewood told on Tuesday in a piece exploring her reaction to the nominations, which included Woman King star Viola Davis shut out of the Best Actress conversation.
Despite The Woman King‘s lack of recognition from the Academy, Prince-Bythewood maintained that her film was a success, citing the movie’s positive reviews from critics and audiences, as well as “groundbreaking and historic” global box office numbers that show the film will earn $100 million.
“But the Academy made a very loud statement, and for me to stay quiet is to accept that statement,” she told THR. “So I agreed to speak up, on behalf of Black women whose work has been dismissed in the past, is dismissed now like Alice Diop and Saint Omer, Chinonye Chukwu and Till — and for those who haven’t even stepped on a set yet.”
Prince-Bythewood explained to the trade that she does not think it’s fair to say The Woman King was “snubbed” because it was shut out entirely from the upcoming awards show, even after it “hit all the so-called markers” of an Oscar-nominated film.
“It’s a reflection of where the Academy stands and the consistent chasm between Black excellence and recognition,” she said. “And, sadly, this is not just an issue in Hollywood but in every industry.”
Meanwhile, Jenkins was set to helm Rogue Squadron, a spinoff story about the Rebel Alliance Starfighters from the franchise. It was originally slated for a December 2023 release from Disney but was pulled from the schedule in September, Variety reported last week. A source told the outlet that Rogue Squadron is no longer in development.