That’s shocking because there’s a ton of female directors who come through Sundance, the country’s pre-eminent independent film festival. There’s also the example of Anne Fletcher, who’s directed more top-grossing films than any other woman. She’s never brought up because she makes movies like “The Proposal” — light comedies that aren’t taken seriously. But there are a lot of male directors who make those same kinds of films and they’re brought in for directing assignments all the time.

Like a “Hangover” situation.

N.S.: Exactly. That was Todd Phillips, and he might be an Academy Award nominee for “The Joker” soon. We’ll see what happens. But Todd Phillips was making comedies, yet they had no problem seeing him fit to direct “The Joker.”

So with more films being made by female directors, is there some disagreement about to what extent the “pipeline problem” is really to blame for the discrepancy in who’s getting nominated?

N.S.: In years past, the crop of movies and directors hasn’t been as big or as strong, so it’s been easier to overlook the crop, to say, it’s a pipeline problem, they’re not getting enough chances. But what’s happening is women do seem to be getting more chances. Not enough, but more.

So now, I don’t know if it’s reflective of the pipeline or just of the overall bias that the people making these award decisions have. The kind of movies women make, they’re often thought of as movies for a smaller population, more independent, not as broad. It’s kind of a ridiculous sentiment, but it perpetuates itself.

We’ll see what happens with the Academy Awards. Jennifer Lopez will likely get an acting nomination for “Hustlers,” but the movie’s unlikely to get into the Best Picture conversation at all, and Lorene Scafaria, who directed it, is unlikely to get into the director’s race. If that movie had been directed by a man, could we expect to see a different scenario? Perhaps.

Has the Hollywood Foreign Press Association said anything about its nomination choices?

N.S.: Lorenzo Soria, the H.F.P.A.’s president, said, “What happened is that we don’t vote by gender. We vote by film and accomplishment.”