From #OscarsSoWhite to announcing the wrong Best Picture winners, the Oscars are often found courting controversy. But, as the 95th Academy Awards Ceremony rolls around this month, we want to take a look at something positive - the brilliant women making strides within the nominations list.
The Behind the Scenes category
Every year we feel just a little bit sad for the Oscar winners in categories that the general public just don’t really seem to care about. Let me say that again, we feel a bit bad for Oscar winners. Ok, maybe not that bad - but there is so much talent behind the scenes, that just doesn’t get the same recognition as the Best Film/Actress/Director buzz. So we wanted to spotlight some:
Camille Friend - Black Panther (Makeup and Hairstyling)
Nominated alongside her colleague, Joel Harlow, Camille Friend was responsible for the amazing styling you see in Marvel’s ‘Black Panther: Wakanda Forever’. Growing up in Arizona amongst a family of hairdressers, Friend set her sights on Hollywood early on. She moved to LA and by her mid-twenties was working as a hairstylist in the industry. Her film credits include 'Django', 'The Hunger Games', 'Dreamgirls' and the upcoming 'The Little Mermaid' among others.
Side note: Did anyone notice the Fenty Beauty plug in Wakanda Forever? They had a full conversation about it in the middle of recruiting Riri Williams (Dominique Thorne). Whatever it takes to get Rihanna to sing the film theme I guess.
Florencia Martin - Babylon (Production Design)
Born and raised in Los Angeles, Florencia Martin has an impressive CV. She has worked on ‘Licorice Pizza’, Jordan Peele’s ‘Us’, ‘Twin Peaks’ and ‘Manchester by the Sea’ to name a few. Her nomination this year comes from her work on ‘Babylon’, starring Margot Robbie and Brad Pitt. Not only has she worked in film and TV but she’s also designed sets for commercial and music clients, including Adidas and the band Haim.
Evgenia Arbugaeva - Haulout (Documentary Short Film)
A documentary photographer by trade, Evgenia Arbugaeva was born in the Republic of Yakutia in Siberia. Her work has been published in National Geographic and Time among others. Her personal work often explores the people and nature of the Arctic and that is a passion she brings to her debut film, ‘Haulout’. Co-directed by Maxim Arbugaeva, ‘Haulout’ follows a man who is waiting in his hut for an annual natural event.
The Most Highly Anticipated category
Here at Qissa, we are so thrilled to see such great representation in the Best Supporting Actress category. Will the award go to Vietnamese-American actress Hong Chau for her role in ‘The Whale’ alongside Brendan Fraser, or how about multiple-award-winning actress Angela Bassett for her portrayal of the Queen of Wakanda? Personally, we love love loved Stephanie Hsu’s performance in ‘Everything Everywhere All At Once’ so we have our fingers crossed for her.
The Showstopper category
And speaking of ‘Everything Everywhere All At Once’, we couldn’t pass by the chance to rave about it here. Nominated for Best Picture and Writing (Original Screenplay), EEAAO is one of the best films we watched last year. Completely unexpected, bouncing between hilarious, creepy and wholly emotional, it is literally everything all at once. It is a joy to behold. Michelle Yeoh is outstanding and Stephanie Hsu is a scene-stealer. The relationship between the two is so rich. As soon as we finished watching, we wanted to rewatch all over again.
The Wish You Were Here category
We were sad to not find a number of women on the final nominee list after they made the shortlist announcement in late 2022. These include:
Viola Davis - The Woman King (Best Actress)
Autumn Durald Arkapaw - Black Panther 2: Wakanda Forever (Best Cinematography)
Rivkah Beth Medow (Director) and Jen Rainin (Producer) - Holding Moses (Best Documentary Short)
The Wait, Why Aren’t You Here category
No female Visual Effects nominees. Only one woman nominated in Best Sound (alongside her five male colleagues). Why aren’t there more women in these categories? In fact, in the last five years, there has only been one woman nominated in the Visual Effects category. Bearing in mind these nominations are usually team efforts, with four or five people per film nominated, this is a really low number. Similarly in Sound - since they combined Sound Editing and Sound Mixing for the 2021 awards - only six women have been nominated out of 55. To compare, there were four Mark/Markus’ and four Michael/Mike’s nominated within the same timeframe. This is why we need to encourage more young women into STEM! One of the main ways of doing this is to highlight women who are already in those roles and leading the way so that’s what we’ll do, with a shout-out to:
Sound
Gwendolyn Yates Whittle, Avatar: The Way of the Water, 2023
Denise Yard, Belfast, 2022
Tara Webb, The Power of the Dog, 2022
Jaime Baksht, Sound of Metal, 2021
Michellee Couttolenc, Sound of Metal, 2021
Visual Effects
Genevieve Camilleri, Love and Monsters, 2021
Header image: Richard Harbaugh / ©A.M.P.A.S.
The 95th Academy Awards are taking place on Sunday 12 March, starting at 4pm PST.
