Natalie Portman and Waad al-Kateab Make Fashion Statements
Monday, February 10, 2020 at 2:01PM 
The Oscars global stage is always good for bold statements and some chose to convey their messages by what they wore. Natalie Portman continued her side eye to Hollywood for not recognizing female directors by wearing them on her dress...
She embroidered the names of some snubbed female directors into the cape of her Dior dress. According to reports online these were the names: Lorene Scafaria (Hustlers), Greta Gerwig (Little Women), Mati Diop (Atlantics), Marielle Heller (A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood), Melina Matsoukas (Queen & Slim), Alma Har’el (Honey Boy), Céline Sciamma (Portrait of a Lady on Fire) and Lulu Wang (The Farewell).
Another embroiderment came from Documentary filmmaker Waad al-Kateab. The For Sama nominee covered the skirt of her dress with an Arabic poem. The poem was a homage to perseverance, just like her film about living under war shelling in Aleppo was. It translates into English as: “we dared to dream and we will not regret dignity.” And notice the titular Sama, the baby the film is dedicated to, all grown up and attending the Oscars.
Of course when you make a bold statement you risk criticism. Hannah Beachler,the Dark Waters production designer who won an Oscar last year for Black Panther, chided Portman for not working with enough female filmmakers.
In a nearly 30 year career she has worked with 2 female directors. Be the change you want to see, do the hard work, take the first steps. I applaud you for the dress, but let’s do, not perform. https://t.co/HoW6o4BUOm
— Hannah Beachler (@chinchilla1970) February 10, 2020
Perhaps that is unfair because Portman has tried to bring Patty Jenkins into Thor and Lynne Ramsay into Jane’s Got a Gun. She was unsuccessful both times, though the reasons behind that are well documented in the press. And just like any statement she has to follow it up with action to be effective. So let’s give her the benefit of time and see what happens.
Reader Comments (16)
Portman has worked with Marya Cohn, Mira Nair, Sofia Coppola, and Rebecca Zlotowski.
She also IS a female director!
The night was uneventful when it comes to fashion. Penélope Cruz and Charlize Theron stood out for choosing beautiful and chic black dresses that highlighted their gorgeousness.
All this sort of stuff has made the season so tiresome.
Portman has more than 60 acting credits to her name. 2 female directors? She doesn’t need more time, she needs a lesson about hypocrisy.
About Portman and the response she received I think both of the perspectives are very valid.
Even when i`m not particularly enthusiasmatic with getting political in award shows, people are free to express their opinions and a way to do it is using your body and clothes (like Mon Laferte did it months ago in the Latin Grammys)
In the other hand the post from Hannah Beachler reminds me a moment in my life: I did a comic strip to my work about respecting the spaces in toilets for people that has a dissability. I received a lot of positive comments but most of them sayed something like: "I hope exists more persons like the character who defend another people" and i responded to all of them "You can be that person"
For years i`ve been complaining that the people in México almost doesn`t watch mexican movies and i`m still think that is a shame but the best thing i can do is to watch that movies for myself because the most important about that ideas is turn them into actions.
Hannah Beachler doesn't have a sterling record working with female directors either. Perhaps she should take her own advice. Or perhaps we should realize that abundant opportunities haven't existed for anyone and applaud activism where we can take it. I'm still grateful that Portman brought attention to Greta Gerwig's 2017 Golden Globes snub for Lady Bird, and I would be if she worked with 0 female directors or 20.
It reminded me of when actresses were going on in one of those roundtables about the importance of working with female directors and how they needed a chance and Kirsten Dunst, who was there, was like “so why don’t you do it?” . Celebrities are in a position to change practically anything they want and most times they choose not to
Chris Rock was 100% right when he said yesterday that Twitter is the reason no one hosts the Oscars anymore, and that basically encapsulates everything nowadays. The online outrage machine and cancel culture is exhausting.
Hannah Beachler really is in no position to judge Portman, like someone else here has pointed out. The vast majority of her filmmaking credits have been with male directors. However, Portman should take a page out of Kidman and Witherspoon's book and really make an effort to develop and produce film and television projects with female directors at the helm. As someone with as much privilege, power, money, and longevity as Natalie Portman - she can do it.
If she really cares about female directors why not finance a movie by a woman
Jules and Aaron - you ain't being sincere. Natalie Portman is a movie star. Her involvement can bring a movie financing and boost female directors work up. Hannah is a production designer whose involvement has ZERO weight with movie goers or studio heads.
To be fair to Portman more than half of her 60 credits came when she was a child and had no say in who she was working with.
I’m with Tom G. You could possibly hold her accountable after Black Swan skyrocketed her to her most powerful and influential. Remember the great efforts with Jenkins and Ramsay happened during this era. Don’t black and white a situation that is neither, allow her pale to mid gray(maximum) truth to be the topic.
Her production company has hired only one female director. Herself. She could hire female directors, finance projects written and directed by women, use her money, influence, prestige, power, name and clout to do more for this situation than just having names sewed on her Dior cape.
Names incrusted on a Dior Cape at the Oscar. This is peak celebrity wokeness.
I read this post and I'm more interested in Waad el Kataeb. What a moment it would have been for her to win and bring Sama with her to the podium. Remind all of us why documentaries from warzones is such a vital and important form of resistance.
I think a lot of people on this thread overestimate the power that most celebrities have in Hollywood. Unless you were in a true blockbuster that your studio wants to create a sequel for AND THE SEQUEL IS ALMOST UNIMAGINABLE WITHOUT YOU (so not Portman and THOR) you don't have all that much power in 21st Century Hollywood. Daniel Craig probably got almost everything he wanted for the new Bond, just like Bill Murray got a whole movie financed (RAZOR'S EDGE) so that he'd do GHOSTBUSTERS II way back when, but the days when a Will Smith film was guaranteed to earn $150 mil are gone, and so is much of the power most celebrities used to have.