Natalie Portman took a less-than-subtle swipe at the Film Academy on the red carpet of this year’s Oscars.
It’s been well-documented that 2020 has not been a great year for diversity at the Academy Awards, with only one actor of colour represented in any of the acting categories, and no women receiving recognition in the Best Director category.
In response to the latter issue, three-time Oscar nominee – who won Best Actress for her performance in Black Swan – Natalie Portman made quite the fashion statement with her wardrobe choice.
As she posed for photographers on her way into the event, many noticed the actress had the names of women whose films had been snubbed by the Oscars stitched into her dress.
Among them were “Scafaria”, “Gerwig” and “Wang”, referencing the directors of Hustlers, Little Women and The Farewell, respectively.
Natalie also sported the surnames of Mati Diop, Marielle Heller, Alma Har’el and Melina Matsoukas, who were also among the female filmmakers who released critically-acclaimed work in the last 12 months.
During the Golden Globes in 2018, Natalie also made a point of calling out the lack of female filmmakers that had been nominated when she and Ron Howard presented the Best Director award.
Introducing the five people nominated, the Jackie actress said: “And here are the all-male nominees.”
In 92 years of the Academy Awards, only five women have ever been nominated for Best Director, the most recent of which was in 2017, when Greta Gerwig was recognised for Lady Bird.
Katheryn Bigelow remains the only woman to have ever triumphed in this category, which she did in 2009 for The Hurt Locker.
Check out all the red carpet photos from this year’s Oscars below..
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