How long can this nonsense of the Oscars failing to nominate female directors go on? | Ellen E Jones

This year’s Academy Awards show that diversity drives will only get us so far.

Filmgoers and the industry must question what makes a film award-worthyCongratulations to those men – I guess? Issa Rae summarised the mixed feelings of many when yet another all-male list of best director Oscar nominations was announced yesterday.

It’s possible to note – entirely without snide – that it has been a bumper year for films about men by men.

The frontrunners – Quentin Tarantino’s Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, Martin Scorsese’s The Irishman, Sam Mendes’ 1917, and even Todd Phillips’ Joker – provided plentiful and pertinent insights into male power, male ego and male fallibility.

But what about the rest of us?We must content ourselves with Little Women, the lone female-directed film on the best picture list, for, as Aunt March would counsel, that is our lot in life.

After decades of being mischaracterised

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