Most consecutive female Oscar winners for Best Director

Chloé Zhao (China, b. Zhao Ting) for Nomadland (USA, 2020) and Dame Jane Campion (New Zealand) for The Power of the Dog (New Zealand/UK/USA/Greece/Australia, 2021) were the first back-to-back female winners of the award for Best Director since the category was inaugurated at the 1st Academy Awards on 16 May 1929.

In what has traditionally been a male-dominated category, just one woman had claimed the prize before the Zhao/Campion double: Kathryn Bigelow (USA) for The Hurt Locker, at the 82nd Academy Awards on 7 March 2010.

Since the turn of the century, Sofia Coppola (2004), Greta Gerwig (2018), Chloé Zhao (2021), Emerald Fennell (2021) and Jane Campion (2022) are the only women with nominations for Best Director. Campion was also nominated ahead of the 66th Academy Awards (1994), but Steven Spielberg won the statuette for Schindler’s List.