Mostly male Oscar nominees reflect dearth of women in film
LOS ANGELES — Academy Awards voters made history this year when they nominated Rachel Morrison for the cinematography Oscar — the first woman so recognized in the organization’s 90 years. Greta Gerwig is also up for best director, only the fifth woman nominated in Oscar history. Yet in nearly every Oscar category, nominees are overwhelmingly male.
Three of the 24 categories have no female nominees at all.
Outside of acting, 77 percent of this year’s Oscar nominees are male, according to a recent study by the Women’s Media Center. And because the academy can only recognize films that have been released in theaters, the gender-based disparity among Oscar nominees reflects how vastly underrepresented women are in Hollywood.
The Oscar nominations are in line with actual employment statistics, said Women’s Media Center president Julie Burton. Citing the most recent Study of Women in Television & Film produced annually out of San Diego State University, she said women were only 3 percent of composers and 8 percent of supervising sound editors. No women are nominated for best score or visual effects this year. There is one woman, Mary H. Ellis, included among the 25 people nominated in the two sound categories.
“In Hollywood, on every level of decision-making, there are far more men calling the shots, making the deals, and hiring and firing, than there are women, and this power imbalance is reflected in the employment and nomination gender gap,” Burton said. “Women cannot get through the door, and if they can’t get through the door, they can’t be recognized and rewarded for their excellence and impact.”
And because who makes movies influences what’s in them, the dearth of women in all areas of filmmaking means “male voices and perspectives are largely responsible for what we see on screen,” she added.
Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences chief Dawn Hudson said the academy, which bestows the Oscars, has actively sought to diversify its membership in recent years. It has pledged to double the number of women and people of color in its ranks by 2020, and she noted, the number of women on its board has more than tripled since 2011.
“We look to the rest of the film community to follow suit,” she said.