Women snagged record 28% of 2019 Oscar nominations, an all-time high

Of the 225 individuals nominated this year in the 24 competitive categories, 62 women were named, based on a tally from TheWrap. That’s compared to just 57 of 213 individual nominees in 2018 (26.8 percent), and 48 of 211 in 2017 (22.7 percent).

According to TheWrap’s analysis, individuals like costume designer Sandy Powell and writer-director-producer Alfonso Cuarón were counted for each of their nominations.

The gains came primarily in below-the-line categories like Documentary Feature, Makeup and Hairstyling, Animated short, Live-Action Short and Sound Editing. In fact, eight of the 15 individuals nominated in the Best Documentary Feature category were women, compared to just four last year.

But many commentators have noted that this year failed to repeat some of last year’s historic nominations in major categories like Best Director, when Greta Gerwig became only the fifth female nominee, for ‘Lady Bird’.

Last year also boasted a historic nomination when Rachel Morrison became the first woman to ever be nominated for Best Cinematography for her work on ‘Mudbound’. While she didn’t score a nomination for her subsequent work on ‘Black Panther’, this year, Hannah Beachler became the first African American to be nominated in the Production Design category.

As for the actresses, five of the 10 nominees are first-time acting nominees, including Olivia Colman, Yalitza Aparicio, Marina de Tavira and Regina King.

In the Best Picture race however, only five of the 25 nominated producers were women: Lynette Howell Taylor for ‘A Star is Born’, Gabriella Rodriguez for ‘Roma’, Lee Magiday and Ceci Dempsey for ‘The Favourite’ and Dede Gardner for ‘Vice’.

That’s a drop from last year, when eight of the 30 producing nominees were women.

Finally, if either ‘Roma’ or ‘The Favourite’ manages to win Best Picture, it will be only the fourth time that the winner contains women in the two principal roles.