As Issa Rae put it while announcing this year’s Best Director Academy Award nominees back in January, “Congratulations to those men.” At Sunday’s red carpet for this year’s Oscars 2020, Natalie Portman offered a small sartorial corrective to this year’s lack of female director nominees, wearing a black Dior cape embroidered with the surnames of several overlooked would-be winners.
If you carefully examine her look below, you’ll see a tiny golden shoutout to Hustlers director Lorene Scafaria, The Farewell director Lulu Wang, Little Women director Greta Gerwig, A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood director Marielle Heller, Honey Boy director Alma Har’el, Portrait of a Lady on Fire director Céline Sciamma, Atlantics director Mati Diop, and Queen & Slim director Melina Matsoukas. As the the actress told Amy Kaufman of the L.A. Times on the carpet, “I wanted to recognize the women who were not recognized for their incredible work this year, in my subtle way.”
