International Women’s Day 2022: The Women of the Academy Awards #IWD2022

Today is International Women’s Day! Every year we try to post something special to celebrate women, usually women in popular culture. For International Women’s Day 2022, we’ve decide to highlight some of the talented women nominated for Academy Awards in non-acting categories.

The reason we’ve chosen to focus on the non-acting categories for International Women’s Day 2022 is because these ladies often get much less recognition. In fact, depending on the category, just having a woman nominated at all is a huge achievement! (The first woman nominated for Best Cinematography didn’t occur until 2018, when Rachel Morrison was nominated for Mudbound.) These women are just as deserving of recognition as any of the big-ticket names, but there won’t be as many reporters clamoring for their attention on the red carpet come Oscar night.

Please remember that this is not a comprehensive list! We’ve chosen only a select few to highlight, so feel free to check out the full list. This list is presented in alphabetical order by category.

Jenny Beavan | Costume Design | Cruella

Jenny Beavan has a storied career in Hollywood that spans more than four decades and four dozen films. She is the designer behind classic films like Ever After and Guy Ritchie’s Sherlock Holmes. Her Instagram offers a backstage look at the process of costume design, including shots of finished products and a look at sketches and fabric swatches. (There are also pics of cute animals!) 

Cruella marks her eleventh nomination for Best Costume Design, an honor that she has won twice before – once for A Room with a View and once for Mad Max: Fury Road.

Jane Campion | Director | The Power of the Dog

Now, I know I made a big deal about acknowledging the women behind the scenes who won’t get the same kind of recognition as those in the more “popular” categories. Jane Campion, nominated for Best Director for The Power of the Dog, doesn’t technically belong, as the Directing category is a celebrated one with a place of honor near the end of the telecast.

However, the reason I’ve chosen to spotlight Campion is because there have been so few women nominated in this category in Oscar’s 94 year history. Only seven women have ever been nominated, and the first was only in 1977. With her nomination for The Power of the Dog, Campion becomes the first woman to ever be nominated twice for the award. She is the only woman nominated in this category in 2022. (She is also nominated this year for Best Picture and Best Adapted Screenplay.)

Elizabeth Mirzaei | Documentary Short | Three Songs for Benazir

Elizabeth Mirzaei is a director and cinematography of non-fiction films and has previous directed films for Al-Jazeera, the BBC, and Discovery, along with various nonprofit organizations. She, along with her husband Gulistan, founded a production company to be an “indigenous window into modern-day Afghanistan” intended to challenge perceptions of the country. They are nominated for Best Documentary Short for Three Songs for Benazir. 

Best Documentary Short is one of the eight categories that will not be broadcast live this year, but instead awarded before the show and edited into the telecast.

Pamela Martin | Editing | King Richard 

Film and TV editor Pamela Martin has worked on more than two dozen titles since the 1990s, including cult favorites like Saved! and Little Miss Sunshine. King Richard is her second nomination for Best Editing, with her first being for The Fighter in 2011. Women tend to be overlooked in this category, even as the films they edit win Best Picture or Best Director. (Patton Oswalt has a great stand-up bit on how important editing is to a film, and how many popular movies had female editors.)

Best Editing is also one of the eight categories that will not be broadcast live this year, which is surprising, given how important editing is to a tight, coherent narrative.

Nadia Stacey, Naomi Donne, Julia Vernon | Makeup and Hairstyling | Cruella

Makeup and Hairstyling is one of the few categories (along with Costume Design and Production Design) that can boast a number of female nominees over the years. In fact, though only 28% of this year’s total nominees are female (a three-year low, by the way), nine of the fifteen nominees in the Makeup and Hairstyling category are women. The team behind Cruella is the sole all-female team, which is why I’ve chosen to highlight them in particular.

This is Nadia Stacey‘s first Oscar nomination; she previously worked on The Favourite. Likewise, this is Julia Vernon’s first Oscar nomination; her credits include Les Miserables and Alice in Wonderland. Naomi Dunne was nominated previously for 1917.

Makeup and Hairstyling is also one of the eight categories that will not be broadcast live.

Tamara Deverell | Production Design | Nightmare Alley

Tamara Deverell has been working in Production Design and Art Direction in Hollywood for more than thirty years, on projects that span various time periods and genres. Her credits include Star Trek: Discovery, Suits, and Wonderfalls. Her website offers production stills and behind the scenes shots of her work, including Nightmare Alley, for which she is nominated for an Oscar alongside Shane Vieau (Set Decoration).

Production Design is yet another one of the eight categories which will not be part of the live telecast.

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As we approach another Oscars with so few women nominated, it’s more important than ever to support women in the industry and champion female-led projects. To start, here is a list of films released in 2021 with female directors. Make sure to take a look at the list for 2022 as well. Actually, just check out the Women and Hollywood site in general, which offers a variety of resources for women in the industry as well as comprehensive lists of films by and about women.

The 94th Annual Academy Awards will be broadcast live (sort of) on ABC on Sunday, March 27 at 8e/5p.

Author: Jamie Sugah

Jamie has a BA in English with a focus in creative writing from The Ohio State University. She self-published her first novel, The Perils of Long Hair on a Windy Day, which is available through Amazon. She is currently an archivist and lives in New York City with her demon ninja vampire cat. She covers television, books, movies, anime, and conventions in the NYC area.

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