32% of Oscar Nominees Are Women, Tying the All-Time High

Tony Maglio
·2 min read

Progress, but not perfect.

Thirty-two percent of the 2024 Oscar nominees are women, tying the all-time high first reached in 2021, a new study by Dr. Stacy L. Smith, the Annenberg Inclusion Initiative, and Adobe Foundation has found.

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Twenty percent of nominees in the 19 categories (the ones related to feature-film awards) they examined were from an underrepresented racial/ethnic group. That ranks third all-time, behind 2021’s 24 percent and 2019’s 21 percent. Women of color hold 5.7 percent of the nominations in 2024; the all-time high was again in 2021, with 11 percent.

“The study reveals how often the Academy Awards recognize the talent and work of women and people of color,” Dr. Smith said in a statement sent to media. “For those who want to say that the Awards are improving, it is critical to note that in 2024, the percentage of women and people of color nominated for awards in feature categories still falls far below proportional representation. There is much more work to do to see the creative talents of women and people of color– and particularly women of color– recognized by this industry body.”

Average the entirety of the Oscars’ 96 years, women have filled 17 percent of all nominations, and 6 percent of nominees have been from an underrepresented racial/ethnic group; fewer than 2 percent of all nominees have been women of color.

The winners throughout Academy Awards history have been about the same: 16 percent are women, 7 percent of noms are from underrepresented groups, and 2 percent have been women of color.

Readers can find more in-depth stats from the annual study here. The website includes insights regarding specific racial/ethnic communities as well as updates on the changes since the #OscarsSoWhite hashtag campaign in 2015. There have been significant improvements toward parity since then.

One new addition on the website for 2024 is a look at how many people have received multiple nominations overall. Women were more likely than men to receive a single nomination: 70 percent of women nominees were nominated once vs. 60 percent of men. The numbers break down similarly for nominees from underrepresented groups: 75 percent of underrepresented nominees received one nod compared to 60 percent of white nominees. Eighty-six percent of the women of color nominees were nominated in just one category.

The most-nominated man (John Williams) has 54 nods all-time compared to 35 for the highest-nominated woman (Edith Head). The most-nominated nominees from underrepresented groups maxed out at 10 nominations (Alfonso Cuarón, James Wong Howe, and Denzel Washington); for women of color, the leaders there had four (Ruth E. Carter, Penélope Cruz, Viola Davis, Ai-Ling Lee, Yolanda Toussieng, and Chloé Zhao).

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