The 92nd Academy Awards take place this Sunday. But as a new decade begins, it appears little has improved in the fight for gender equality in Hollywood. Ungendered awards categories are once again dominated by men. Ahead of this year’s ceremony, we examine how the imbalance breaks down. Carry on scrolling to explore.
There have been more than 10,000 nominations since the first Oscars ceremony in 1929. Each circle represents one of those nominations.
If we take out the nominations that went to men, those that went to men and women as part of a team, and those that are only open to women, the inequality between men and women is laid bare. Women represent just 14% of all nominations.
Best director
The award for best director is the most prestigious open to both genders. It is also one of the most damning examples. Since 1929, there have been 449 nominations for best director. Just five of these went to women.
Best director
Of those five, Kathryn Bigelow is the only one to win the award, when she was victorious in 2010 for The Hurt Locker. But directing is not the only category affected by serious imbalance ...
Best picture
Until 1950, the Oscar for the best film was awarded to a production studio and not broken down by gender. Since then, women on their own have been nominated just 13 times from the 379 total nominations, of whom none has gone on to win the Oscar.
Music awards
There have been 23 music categories over the years, including best score and best song. Female-only representation accounts for just 1.6% of the 1,238 nominees.
Best cinematography
But the starkest imbalance of all comes in the cinematography category. This was the last ungendered category to nominate a woman – and the only one that has only done so once (out of 609 times – 0.16%). That honour goes to Rachel Morrison for her work on Mudbound in 2018.
Speaking to the Guardian, Morrison said: “I don’t believe in being nominated because we are women. It has to be about the work. People were in an uproar about Little Women [whose director, Greta Gerwig, was snubbed], but maybe it wasn’t perceived to be one of strongest films of the year.
“That said, my favourite films this year were almost all female-helmed: Atlantics, Portrait of a Lady, Honey Boy, The Farewell. Change has to start from the ground up – more female directors. Period. And we need to be given similar budgets, similar access to time, to toys etc. Most of the best pictures were huge productions like 1917 and Once Upon a Time in Hollywood and Joker.
“How can Honey Boy [directed by Alma Har’el], which was made for $2.5m, ever be expected to compete? And then the studios have the marketing dollars etc…
“The last thing – and this is huge – is that Oscar voters need to see all the films before they vote. If more voters had seen the indies, I believe there would be more of them at the top of their lists.”
While a gender imbalance in Hollywood still exists, the percentage of women nominated, whether on their own or as part of a team, has certainly improved. At this year’s ceremony, for example, women or mixed teams have been named for 44 per cent of the total nominations, the highest proportion in the history of the Oscars.
But when it comes to the most prestigious categories that both men and women can win — best directing, best picture and adapted and original screenplay — there is still work to be done. All five nominations for best director for Sunday’s awards are men, for example, the second year in a row no woman has been nominated.