This year’s Oscar for best director will definitely go to a man

For the 87th time, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences snubbed women for a best director Oscar nod, announcing a list of all-male nominees for the coveted statue on Monday.

The speculation that Greta Gerwig would crack the best-director glass ceiling for the 92nd Academy Awards with “Little Women” proved false, although she did get a nomination for best-adapted screenplay.

The Academy also nominated a record 62 women for Oscars this year – almost one-third of the field.

Leading the pack with the most number of nominations was dark comic-book story Joker, which received 11 nods, including best picture and best actor for Joaquin Phoenix.

The Warner Bros film will compete for the top prize with racecar drama Ford v Ferrari, gangster movie The Irishman, Nazi satire Jojo Rabbit, classic novel adaptation Little Women, divorce drama Marriage Story, World War I film 1917, nostalgic Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, and South Korean comedy-thriller movie Parasite.

The Irishman, Universal Pictures’ 1917 and Quentin Tarantino’s Once Upon a Time in Hollywood from Sony Pictures got 10 nods each.

Streaming video service Netflix Inc got 24 nominations, including for The Irishman, as well as for Marriage Story, The Two Popes and the documentary, American Factory.

The Silicon Valley giant, which reinvented television distribution and consumption, will battle for Oscar glory against century-old Hollywood studios, including Comcast Corp’s Universal Pictures, AT&T Inc’s Warner Bros. and Sony Corp’s Columbia Pictures.

Winning best picture would burnish Netflix’s reputation in the film business and give it new bragging rights in the increasingly competitive fight for streaming video viewers. The company began releasing original movies in 2015 and has been trying to build a library of prestige films alongside its dozens of comedies, thrillers and action flicks.

But the digital video pioneer has irked theatre owners by insisting that its films stream at the same time, or a few weeks after, they debut in theatres. Major theatre chains have objected to the timing and refused to show Netflix films. The practice also forced members of the film academy to debate how to define a movie.

Last year, Netflix’s Roma competed for best picture but did not win.

Acting nominees overwhelmingly white

The Oscars, the most prestigious awards in the movie industry, will be handed out at a ceremony in Hollywood on February 9.

The nods for Joker, which was controversial for its terrifying portrayal of an isolated loner but took more than one billion dollars at the global box office, covered all the major fields, including for director Todd Phillips, adapted screenplay, film editing and sound editing.

In acting races, other nominees included Once Upon a Time in Hollywood stars Leonardo DiCaprio and Brad Pitt, Marriage Story stars Adam Driver and Scarlett Johansson, and Little Women actresses Saoirse Ronan and Florence Pugh.

Only two of the acting nominees were not white: Cynthia Erivo for her lead role as anti-slavery activist Harriet Tubman in Harriet and Spaniard Antonio Banderas for drama Pain and Glory.

Social satire Parasite became the first South Korean movie to be nominated in both the best picture and best international film categories. Director Bong Joon Ho also received a nod for best director.

Notable snubs included Robert De Niro, star of The Irishman, Jennifer Lopez for Hustlers, Eddie Murphy for comedy Dolemite is My Name and Disney blockbusters The Lion King and Frozen 2 – both of which were omitted in the animated feature film category.