Actor Natalie Portman made a pointed statement on the exclusion of female directors from the Best Director category at the 92nd Academy Awards through her outfit on Sunday night.
Portman wore a black dress and a black Dior cape, which had the last names of eight women directors in 2019 who directed critically-acclaimed films, embroidered in gold. The directors named on the cape are: Lorene Scafaria (Hustlers), Lulu Wang (The Farewell), Greta Gerwig (Little Women), Mati Diop (Atlantics), Marielle Heller (A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood), Melina Matsoukas (Queen & Slim), Alma Har’el (Honey Boy), and Céline Sciamma (Portrait of a Lady on Fire).
"I wanted to recognise the women who were not recognised for their incredible work this year in a subtle way," she said.
Natalie Portman embroidered her Dior cape with all of the female directors who weren't nominated for #Oscars. Check out her explanation here. pic.twitter.com/kyyo2wVMZf
— Amy Kaufman (@AmyKinLA) February 10, 2020
For the second straight year, no women directors were nominated in the directing category at the Academy Awards, and has been roundly criticised for those calling for more inclusivity and diversity at the Oscars. Nominated in the category were Martin Scorsese for The Irishman, Todd Phillips for Joker, Sam Mendes for 1917, Quentin Tarantino for Once Upon a Time... in Hollywood and Bong Joon-ho for Parasite. Bong Joon-ho later won the award.
It's not the first time that Portman has slammed the awards ceremony for snubbing female filmmakers. While presenting the best director award at the Golden Globes in 2018, she quipped: "and now, here are the all male nominees".
Natalie Portman went into savage mode and poor Guillermo del Toro never saw it coming pic.twitter.com/DF0BAcReSt
— Pete Blackburn (@PeteBlackburn) January 8, 2018
In the 90-year history, only one woman has won the award for Best Director. Kathryn Bigelow won the award for Best Director for The Hurt Locker in 2008
Only five women have ever been nominated for the award.
In 1977, Lina Wertmüller was nominated for Seven Beauties, Jane Campion was nominated for The Piano in 1994, Sofia Coppola was nominated for Lost In Translation in 2004 and Greta Gerwig was nominated in 2018 for Lady Bird.
With IANS inputs