Natalie Portman made waves on the Oscars red carpet by wearing a cape embroidered with the names of female directors who were overlooked by the Academy this year. The directors nominated for the Best Director award are all men, despite the fact that one of the Best Picture nominations, Little Women, was directed by a woman. Sadly, this isn’t the first time in the 2020 awards season that female directors have been snubbed, the Hollywood Foreign Press Association also failed to nominate any women for the Golden Globes.
Portman, who will reprise her role as Jane Foster in Thor: Love and Thunder, has been a vocal critic of Hollywood awards voters in the past. In 2018, the Black Swan actress called out the lack of female representation at the Golden Globes while on-stage presenting the award for Best Director. “And here are the all-male nominees,” Portman announced to a shocked audience. The actress isn’t alone in expressing her disappointment with the male-favoring directorial nominees. Actress Issa Rae had the honor of announcing the Best Director nominees for the 2020 Oscars and took the opportunity to remark, “Congratulations to those men.”
The actress continued her demand for a more inclusive awards season by wearing a cape with the names of all the women snubbed by Academy voters as she walked down the event’s red carpet. MTV News posted a few shots of Portman’s cape on Twitter, which includes the names Marielle Heller (A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood), Mati Diop (Atlantics), Melina Matsoukas (Queen & Slim), Alma Har’el (Honey Boy), and Céline Sciamma (Portrait of a Lady on Fire). Also included on the Dior cape were Hustlers director Lorene Scafaria, Lulu Wang (The Farewell), and Greta Gerwig (Little Women).
A Los Angeles Times writer caught up with Portman on the red carpet to ask about the cape, and the actress replied, “I wanted to recognize the women who were not recognized for their incredible work this year in my subtle way.” The cape, which the actress wore over a black and gold gown, is a clever delivery method for the important message, and a smart way to get people talking (and writing) about the topic. The Academy Awards are in their 95th year, and in all that time only nominated five women for Best Director. Kathryn Bigelow is the only woman to have won the award for 2009’s The Hurt Locker. Greta Gerwig was nominated in 2017 for Ladybird but lost to Damien Chazelle for La La Land.
The lack of recognition for female directors isn’t the only controversy facing the Oscars this year; the awards show was also rebuked for only nominating a single person of color in the acting categories. The lack of representation in the nominations is rather astonishing in a year that saw the release of films like Us, Dolemite Is My Name, and Queen & Slim - all of which featured black actors in leading roles. Stars like Jennifer Lopez and Michael B. Jordan delivered stellar performances, but neither they nor their films - Hustlers and Just Mercy, respectively - were nominated. Hopefully, by the time the 2021 award season rolls around, voters push themselves to consider nominating more women and people of color in all available categories. Should that occur, Natalie Portman would be the perfect person to present the award.
More: Natalie Portman Defends Marvel Movies Against Martin Scorsese Criticism
Source: MTV News via Twitter
