After two straight years of growth for representation by women, the Academy showed some slippage in gender equity with this year’s Oscar nominations. Women represented 28% of all of this year’s individual nominations, the lowest percentage in three years.
Based on TheWrap’s count, 65 of the 229 individual nominees from 2022’s crop of nominated films are women, or 28.3%. That’s a decline from last year, when a record 76 of the 235 individual nominees (32.3%) were women, and also a drop from 2020, when 65 of 209 individual nominees were women (31.1%).
This year’s 60 female nominees (several, such as writer-director-producer Jane Campion, were nominated in more than one category) do represent growth over the last decade, however. In 2019, 62 of 225 nominees (27.5%) were women, as were 57 of 213 individual nominees in 2018 (26.8%) and 48 of 211 in 2017 (22.7%).
In TheWrap’s analysis, individuals nominated in multiple categories were counted for each of their nominations. In addition to Campion’s three nominations for Best Picture, Best Director and Best Adapted Screenplay, the three female producers of “Flee” were each nominated for Best Documentary Feature and Best Animated Feature. The count also does not include nominees in Best International Film, which officially goes to the country of origin.
Beyond the numbers alone, this year did have some surprises and landmarks. Campion became the first woman to receive a second career nomination for Best Director (she was previously recognized for “The Piano” in 1993). Germaine Franco, the composer for “Encanto,” is the first Latina woman to ever be nominated in that category. And three of the films nominated for Best Adapted Screenplay — “The Power of the Dog,” “CODA” and “The Lost Daughter” — were all written by women. In the acting categories, five of the 10 female acting nominees were first timers, not to mention that two of the nominees, Kristen Stewart and Ariana DeBose, openly identify as LGBTQ.
“We are thrilled to see Jane Campion for Best Director and Ari Wegner for Best Cinematographer nominated for ‘The Power of the Dog’ — two categories that rarely have women nominated,” Women in Film CEO Kirsten Schaffer told TheWrap in a statement. “Some categories have no women this year — original screenplay, VFX, International Feature — this speaks to the overall state of the business. We still have work to do to get to an industry that reflects the population.”
This year, eight of the 29 producing nominees in the Best Picture field were women, which is roughly on par with the past two years, when 7 of 23 in 2021 and 9 of 24 in 2020 were nominated, respectively.
This year’s tally also lines up with TheWrap’s yearly analysis of the number of women who directed films eligible for the Oscars, including in the Best Picture, Best International Feature, Best Documentary Feature and Best Animated Feature races. The percentage of women who directed Best Picture-eligible films this year was 27%, which stayed stagnant compared to three straight years of growth.
Women were recognized in most of the below-the-line categories, including in Film Editing (Pamela Martin, “King Richard”), Original Score (Germaine Franco, “Encanto”), Cinematography (Ari Wegner, “The Power of the Dog”) and Sound (Denise Yarde, “Belfast” and Tara Webb, “The Power of the Dog”), but were absent in both Visual Effects and Best Original Screenplay.
The 94th Annual Oscars take place on Sunday, March 27 on ABC. View the full list of nominees here.
