Here you can read all about the role of women and the status of equality in the 92-year history of the Oscars.
After #MeToo and the Times Up-movement, the situation of women in the Hollywood industry has been changing. These movements did not only make the prevailing practices of harassment and sexual abuse visible but also demanded improvements in wage equality and equal opportunities.
Let's remember when in 2015, an actress (Oscar winner for best -supporting actress for her role in Boyhood), opened a very important gap for the role of women in the American film industry. In her acceptance speech, she called for one of the traditional demands of Hollywood actresses: equal pay. It was her words that caused Meryl Streep's euphoric reaction we ended up seeing as a popular gif all over the internet.
In the 2018, females represented 26.8% among the artists and professionals nominated.
In the 2018 edition of the Oscars, female presence scored only 26.8% among the artists and professionals nominated (out of 213 candidates, only 57 were women). The ceremony was undoubtedly marked by the speech given by actress Frances McDormand after winning the Oscar for best actress, a feminist plea in an industry that needs a lot of rhetoric to change old habits. Her words made all present rise to a standing ovation.
The ceremony of 2019 made history with the highest number of female winners to date - at a total of 15 statuettes.
Despite this, during the last ceremony (2019), womxn continued to be a large minority representing 27.5% of the nominees (out of 225 candidates, 62 were womxn), this percentage looks even more dramatic when analyzing what categories the nominated womxn were found in - almost entirely in areas like clothing, make-up, and hairstyling or singing. The categories around which the most important decisions are based, shaping the narrative development of the story (such as direction or script) were all dominated by men. However, the mathematical controversy also had its positive aspects to it, as the ceremony showed the highest number of female winners to date, at a total of 15 statuettes. Thus, professional womxn filmmakers accounted for 27.8% of the gala's victories.
During the 2019 ceremony, four of the five live performances included female artists.
The academy seeks to redeem itself from its old habits by betting on diversity from different perspectives. This was also reflected in the last award ceremony, where the presence of womxn in live music performances was overwhelming: four of the five live performances included female artists.
Bette Midler doing "The Place Where Lost Things Go", from the movie Mary Poppins Returns.
Jennifer Hudson with"I Will Fight", from the movie RBG.
Gillian Welch and David Rawlings performed “When A Cowboy Trades His Spurs For Wings”, from the movie The Ballad Of Buster Scruggs.
Lady Gaga and Bradley Cooper sang "Shallow", from the film "A Star is Born".
In 2020, controversy was once again sparked, due to the absence of women candidates in the best director category.
And although female visibility within the industry raised its voice, the announcement of the 2020 nominations, once again sparked, due to the absence of womxn candidates in the best director category. So far, in more than 90 years of history, the only woman to win the Oscar for best direction was Kathryn Bigelow for "In Hostile Territory" in 2009. Since then, not been a single woman was nominated until Greta Gerwig burst in with her debut "Lady Bird" in 2018. The American director is now one of the protagonists of the controversy, because her film, Little Women has been nominated for six Oscars, including best picture and best-adapted screenplay - but it is absent from the nomination for best director.
In the last two decades, only two female artists were nominated in the category Best Original Score.
Entering the musical arena of awards, the story is even sadder. Since the first edition in 1923, only two womxn have won an Oscar in the category Best Original Score: Rachel Portman in 1996 was the first woman to win it for the film "Emma", and was followed in 1997 by British composer Anne Dudley for the film "The Full Monty". While in the last two decades, there were only two female artists nominated in this category: the former winner Rachael Portman for the film "Chocolat" in 2000, followed by the English singer Michachi nominated in 2017 for the soundtrack for the film "Jackie".
In 1976, Barbara Streisand was the first composer to win the Oscar for Best Original Song for Evergreen, from the film A Star is Born.
Other women who won this award include:
Carole Bayer Sager - "Arthur's Theme, Best That You Can Do" (1981)
Buffy Sainte-Marie - "Up Where We Belong" (1982)
Irene Cara - “Flashdance... What a Feeling” (1983)
Carly Simon - "Let the River Run" (1988)
Fran Walsh, y Annie Lennox - "Into the West" (2003)
Melissa Etheridge - "I Need to Wake Up" (2006)
Adele - "Skyfall" (2012)
Kristen Anderson-Lopez - "Let It Go" (2013)
Kristen Anderson-Lopez - "Remember Me" (2017)
Lady Gaga - Shallow (2018)
Billie Eilish will be performing live on stage at the 92nd Annual Oscars Awards.
Among the women performing live tonight will be Cynthia Erivo, Chrissy Metz, and Idina Menzel performing this year's nominated songs. In addition, although it has not yet been revealed what she will do, singer Janelle Monáe will be another of the womxn who will perform live on the Dolby Theater stages.
The ceremony will also feature a special performance by multiple Grammy Award-winner Billie Eilish. Although she has not yet announced what she will be doing, we believe that she will present the track of the new James Bond film "No Time to Die".
Female factors :
The woman with the most nominations in the history of the Oscars is designer Edith Head. She accumulated a total of 35 nominations, all in the category of best costume design. She won eight times, becoming also the woman who has received the Oscar more times.
Meryl Streep is the actress who has been nominated most times for the award. She has a total of 21 (18 as best actresses and 3 as supporting actress) and has won the statuette three times.
Although during her career she received fewer nominations (12) than Meryl, Katherine Hepburn is the performer with the most Oscars in history. No actor or actress surpasses her four statuettes.
