Actress Natalie Portman has once again called out the Academy Awards for not nominating any woman for the best director award.
Portman wore a gold and black dress with a cape embroidered with the names of all those women directors who deserved to be nominated but were overlooked.
The names on Portman’s dress included Lulu Wang, the director of The Farewell; Lorene Scafaria, who made Hustlers; and Greta Gerwig, who directed Little Women.
Speaking of her effort of honoring the left-out female filmmakers, Portman told Los Angeles Times at Oscars 2020 red carpet: “I wanted to recognize the women who were not recognized for their incredible work this year in my subtle way.”
Other names listed on the dress of Jackie’s star were Marielle Heller, director of A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood; Céline Sciamma, who filmed Portrait of a Lady on Fire; Alma Har’el, director of Honey Boy; Melina Matsoukas, director of Queen & Slim, and Mati Diop, filmmaker of Atlantics.
Though the work of several women-directors was also no less appreciable, none of them could mark their entry on the Oscar nomination list.
The nominees for the category of best directors included Quentin Tarantino for Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, Bong Joon-ho for Parasite, Martin Scorsese for The Irishman, Sam Mendes for 1917, and Todd Phillips for Joker.
It isn’t the first time Portman has expressed her disapproval of disregarding female filmmakers.
Two years back when the actress was presenting at the stage of Golden Globes with Ron Howard, she emphasized ‘all-male’ as she referred to nominees at that time.
Her comment was quickly grasped and applauded by the people present there.
Unfortunately, being nominated for Oscar’s best director award has become the rarest event for lady directors.
Only five female directors have ever been included in the list of nominees for the category. And just one of them, Kathryn Bigelow, has ever been able to win the title.
Bigelow won the award in 2008 for The Hurt Locker.
Replaced!