The Oscars can’t seem to get it right.
Two years ago, focus was not placed on the movies recognised for their achievement in filmmaking, but rather the fact that all 20 acting nominations were Caucasian for a second year in a row.
It prompted the birth of the hashtag #OscarsSoWhite, and a promise by The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to be more inclusive in future by committing to doubling the number of diverse academy members by 2020.
The latest controversy befalling The Academy following the announcement of this year’s batch of nominees, is that not enough women were represented.
Only 5 women have ever been nominated for Best Director, the latest of whom was Greta Gerwig for Lady Bird in 2018.
The year’s Oscar’s crop includes no female directors at all, with some saying that Lynne Ramsay (You Were Never Really Here), Debra Granik (Leave No Trace), Marielle Heller (Can You Ever Forgive Me?), and Chloe Zhao (The Rider) were overlooked.
Women in Film, an organization that strives for gender equality in Hollywood, has said: “Women In Film celebrates all of the women whose remarkable work in front of and behind the camera has been acknowledged by The Academy. However, today’s Oscar nominations also reiterate that we still have real work to do to achieve parity for women across the screen industries — particularly for female directors, whose extraordinary work this year has notably been all but forgotten by Awards acknowledgement.”
Let’s hope next year is #OscarsSoFemale.
