Caped Crusader: Natalie Portman Clapped Back At The Academy For Snubbing Female Directors

During last night’s 2020 Oscars ceremony, the most powerful woman in Hollywood donned cheeky outfit in support of female directors who were overlooked by the Academy Awards. The Black Swan actress graced the red carpet, wearing a customised Dion cape that featured names of all the eight female directors who were snubbed at the 2020 Oscars. 

Fact check: Did you know that in the ceremony’s 92 year history, this year’s Best Director category was male-dominated for the 87th time? Yes, you read it right. 

Another fun fact: Only five women have been nominated for the Best Director category in the 92-year history of the Academy. Yes, you can go back and read that twice.

The names on Portman’s cape were Lorene Scafaria (“Hustlers”), Lulu Wang (“The Farewell”), Greta Gerwig (“Little Women”), Mati Diop (“Atlantics”), Marianne Heller (“A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood”), Melina Matsoukas (“Queen & Slim”), Alma Har’el (“Honey Boy”) and Céline Sciamma (“Portrait of a Lady on Fire”).

Natalie said that she wanted to recognise all the women who were not being acknowledged for their incredible work this year. Watch it here:   

Twitter, too, went all for her, calling her a ‘queen’ and ‘goddess’, while calling the Oscars ‘monocultural’.

This isn’t the first time Natalie has called out sexism at award ceremonies. In 2018, she dominated headlines as she presented the Best Director Award at 75th Annual Golden Globe Awards, she said, ‘And here are the all-male nominees’.  

Ouch!

The writer of TV series Insecure, Issa Rae followed her lead and had called out the all-male Best Director nominees. Issa announced all the nominations and ‘Congratulations to those men’ in the end.

Okay, we don’t mean to make things worse but Kathryn Bigelow is the only woman in the history of Oscars to have won the best director awards. So, are we saying that she was the only deserving female director in the last century?

The five directors nominated for best director this year were Todd Phillips for Joker, Quentin Tarantino for Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, Sam Mendes for 1917, Bong Joon-ho for Parasite and Martin Scorsese for The Irishman. And Bong Joon-ho has won the award. 

Featured Image: Twitter/Instagram