Oscar Nominations for Women Behind the Camera Remain Stalled Fewer Than 33% of Non-Acting Oscar Nominations Go to Women

Full report: WMC Investigation 2026: Gender and Non-Acting Oscar Nominations - Full Report

Friday, Feb. 27, 2026

For Immediate Release

WASHINGTON — The Women’s Media Center has released its annual report on Gender and Non-Acting Oscar Nominations. While some modest gains were made, overall representation for women remains stalled below one-third of nominees, indicating a stubborn resistance to change.

Men continue to dominate in non-acting roles, capturing 69% or 157 nominations this year from a total 266 nominations. Last year, men received 73% or 157 of the 216 non-acting nominations. Women’s nominations rose by 4 percentage points in behind-the-scenes roles to 31% or 69 compared to 27% or 59 women in 2025.

The report found that while women made some inroads because of improvements in eight non-acting categories, that growth is overshadowed by at least 10 major categories where women’s representation declined, stayed flat, or was nonexistent. Oscar winner Chloé Zhao, who is nominated for Hamnet, was the only woman of five nominees to receive a Best Director nod. There also was only one woman nominated for Best Cinematography, Best Visual Effects, and Best Animated Short Film. A woman has never won the Oscar for cinematography. No women are nominated for Best Original Screenplay, Best Original Score, or Best Film Editing.

“There has been some progress for female representation in these creative and technical Oscar categories, but it has been eclipsed by persistent structural barriers, creating a ceiling for women in these behind-the-scenes roles,” said Julie Burton, WMC President and CEO. “The proportion of women nominated in non-acting categories has remained below 32% every year. Hiring is key. Hollywood executives, studios, and other decision-makers have to open up more opportunities for women if there is to be broader, consistent transformation.”

This year, the Academy added a new category for Best Casting, with women snaring four out of the five nominations. Other categories that had a female majority of nominees in 2026 are Best Animated Feature Film, Best Documentary Feature Film, Best Documentary Short Film, and Best Production Design. It’s the first year in Oscar history where women are the majority of nominees for Best Animated Feature Film. In addition, female representation reached a high point this year for Best Production Design, where women are 60% of nominees. For the ninth time in Oscar history, all the nominees for Best Costume Design are women.

The movies Hamnet and Sinners made a difference by having the most women nominated in several non-acting Oscar categories this year — eight and seven, respectively, according to the report. Movies directed by women, like Hamnet, tend to have a higher percentage of women employed in job positions that are eligible for awards, the report noted. Black women received non-acting Oscar nominations for Sinners and documentaries The Perfect Neighbor and The Devil Is Busy, all directed by people of color. “We applaud the creators of these films for making gender representation a cornerstone of their work,” said WMC Board Chair Janet Dewart Bell. “A committed strategy supported by inclusive behind-the-camera hiring practices shows that meaningful change is possible — resulting in powerful productions."

The report also examined representation of women of color in non-acting categories, noting that women of Asian descent made tremendous strides. Zhao became the first woman of color to be nominated twice as Best Director. Zhao and Maggie O’Farrell are nominated for Best Adapted Screenplay for Hamnet. Several women nominees of Asian descent have achieved nominations this year for their work in animated films. In the documentary categories, director/producer Geeta Gandbhi achieved the distinction of being nominated for two documentaries in the same year.

The number of non-acting Oscar nominations for Black women represents a marked improvement over 2025, when Black women were completely shut out. Sinners garnered several Oscar nominations for Black women in categories where Black women are rarely nominated. Producer Zinzi Coogler became only the second Black woman ever to get a Best Picture nomination. Autumn Durald Arkapaw earned a breakthrough nomination, becoming the first woman of color nominated for Best Cinematography.

“Nominations are a reflection of who gets access to these coveted roles as directors, producers, cinematographers, and editors,” said WMC Co-Founder Jane Fonda. “Expanding the pipeline and making behind-the-scenes gender parity an industry standard would benefit not only women creatives but also audiences who have shown that they want to see their stories onscreen.”

Latin/Hispanic and LGBTQ women remain underrepresented, according to the report. Latin/Hispanic women (producer Nidia Santiago of Little Amélie or the Character of Rain and producer Yvett Merino of Zootopia 2) received non-acting Oscar nods for Best Animated Feature Film, and three women from the Spanish film Sirāt (Amanda Villavieja, Laia Casanovas, and Yasmina Praderas) made Oscar history by becoming the first all-female team to get nominated for Best Sound.

The report highlighted gender disparity in several major non-acting categories:

Best Picture: The number of women nominees in this category increased slightly, compared to 2025, but the overall percentage decreased. In 2026, of the 38 nominees, there are 11 women (29%) and 27 men (71%). In 2025, there were nine women (31%) and 20 men (69%) nominated.

Best Director: Only three women have won an Oscar so far in this category, and gender representation remained the same this year: one women (20%) out of five nominees.

Original Screenplay: All 10 of the category’s nominees are men. This is a noticeable drop compared to 2025, when two women (25%) and six men (75%) were on the list of eight nominees.

Film Editing: After making slight progress in previous years, female representation in this category took a nosedive: No women are nominated in 2026. In 2025, only one woman (20%) was nominated along with four men (80%).

Animated Feature: Of the 18 nominees in this category, there are 10 women (56%) and eight men (44%). This is in stark contrast to 2025, when this category had only one woman (8%) among the 13 nominees, with 12 men comprising the other 92%.

Animated Short: Women’s representation in the Animated Short Films category plummeted to one of its lowest points. In 2026, there is only one woman (11%) and eight men (89%) out of the nine nominees. Last year, there were four women (40%) of the 10 nominees, and the other six nominees (60%) were men.

Makeup and Hairstyling: Women have traditionally been the majority of nominees in this category, but not this year. Out of the 14 nominees, five are women (36%), and nine (64%) are men. That’s a sharp decline in female representation from 2025, when out of the 15 nominees, nine (60%) were women and six (40%) were men.

The Women’s Media Center is an inclusive and feminist organization that works to raise the visibility, viability, and decision-making power of women in media by ensuring that their stories get told and their voices are heard. We do this by researching and monitoring media; creating and modeling original online and on-air content; training women to be effective in media; and promoting women experts in all fields.

Full report: WMC Investigation 2026: Gender and Non-Acting Oscar Nominations - Full Report

Infographic: WMC Investigation 2026: Gender and Non-Acting Oscar Nominations - Infographics

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