This is a list of every woman who has been nominated for an Oscar in a non gendered category. This means that this list excludes women who were nominated for Best Actress or Best Supporting Actress.
(This list is a WIP. To clarify, the list itself is done in that all of the films with female nominees are here. But I'm still working on going through the list and adding the actual nominee names to the notes. It's a big project, but one I'm working through slowly.)
The only ceremonies where no women were nominated for Oscars were the 1st and 4th ceremonies. Ever since then, every ceremony has had at least one woman nominated.
Special Note: The only category…
This is a list of every woman who has been nominated for an Oscar in a non gendered category. This means that this list excludes women who were nominated for Best Actress or Best Supporting Actress.
(This list is a WIP. To clarify, the list itself is done in that all of the films with female nominees are here. But I'm still working on going through the list and adding the actual nominee names to the notes. It's a big project, but one I'm working through slowly.)
The only ceremonies where no women were nominated for Oscars were the 1st and 4th ceremonies. Ever since then, every ceremony has had at least one woman nominated.
Special Note: The only category that no woman has ever won is Cinematography. Conversely, the only category where at least one woman has been nominated every year since the category's inception is Best Costume Design. Ever since 2009, there have been a maximum of 10 Best Picture nominees. Ever since then, every year has had at least 4 movies with female producers nominated for Best Picture.
Also to keep in mind is that, technically, the award for Best International Feature is not given to any individual but rather to the submitting country. With that in mind though, it is the director who accepts the award on behalf of the country, and so for the purposes of recognizing female contributions to the Oscars, international films with female directors that were nominated will be included on this list and in the tally below.
Best Writing (Adapted Screenplay):
- Nominated: 1930 (Bess Meredyth - A Woman of Affairs/Wonder of Women)
- Won: 1934 (Sarah Y Mason - Little Women)
- Total: 79/8
Best Writing (Original Screenplay)
- Nominated: 1930 (Josephine Lovett - Our Dancing Daughters)
- Won: 1930 (Frances Marion - The Big House)
- Total: 83/13
Best Film Editing:
- Nominated: 1935 (Anne Bauchens - Cleopatra)
- Won: 1941 (Anne Bauchens - North West Mounted Police)
- Total: 83/15
Best Original Song:
- Nominated: 1936 (Dorothy Fields - Roberta)
- Won: 1937 (Dorothy Fields - Swing Time)
- Total: 102/17
Best Production Design:
- Nominated: 1942 (Julia Heron - That Hamilton Woman)
- Won: 1949 (Carmen Dillon - Hamlet)
- Total: 171/26
Best Costume Design:
- Nominated: 1949 (Irene - B.F's Daughter; Dorothy Jeakins & Karinka - Joan of Arc; Edith Head - The Emperor's Waltz)
- Won: 1949 (Dorothy Jeakins & Karinka - Joan of Arc)
- Total: 290/61
Best Documentary Feature:
- Nominated: 1949 (Janice Loeb - The Quiet One)
- Won: 1956 (Nancy Hamilton - Helen Keller in Her Story)
- Total: 139/24
Best International Feature:
- Nominated: 1960 (Astrid Henning-Jensen - Paw)
- Won: 1996 (Marleen Gorris - Antonia's Line)
- Total: 28/3
Best Live Action Short:
- Nominated: 1960 (Shirley Clarke - Skyscraper)
- Won: 1970 (Joan Keller Stern - The Magic Machines)
- Total: 90/20
Best Documentary Short:
- Nominated: 1961 (Altina Schinasi - George Grosz' Interregnum)
- Won: 1973 (Martina Hugeunot van der Linden - This Tiny World)
- Total: 125/34
Best Animated Short:
- Nominated: 1963 (Faith Hubley - The Hole)
- Won: 1963 (Faith Hubley - The Hole)
- Total: 62/14
Best Picture:
- Nominated: 1974 (Julia Philips - The Sting)
- Won: 1974 (Julia Philips - The Sting)
- Total: 128/13
Best Original Score:
- Nominated: 1975 (Angela Morley - The Little Prince)
- Won: 1984 (Marilyn Bergman - Yentl)
- Total: 13/4
Best Director:
- Nominated: 1977 (Lina Wertmuller - Seven Beauties)
- Won: 2010 (Kathryn Bigelow - The Hurt Locker)
- Total: 11/2
Best Makeup and Hairstyling:
- Nominated: 1983 (Sarah Monzani and Michele Burke - Quest for Fire)
- Won: 1983 (Sarah Monzani and Michele Burke - Quest for Fire)
- Total: 93/26
Best Sound:
- Nominated: 1985 (Kay Rose - The River)
- Won: 1985 (Kay Rose- The River)
- Total: 40/9
Best Visual Effects:
- Nominated: 1987 (Suzanne M. Benson - Aliens)
- Won: 1987 (Suzanne M. Benson - Aliens)
- Total: 6/3
Best Animated Feature:
- Nominated: 2008 (Marjane Satrapi - Persepolis)
- Won: 2013 (Brenda Chapman - Brave)
- Total: 36/5
Best Cinematography:
- Nominated: 2018 (Rachel Morrison - Mudbound)
- Won: 2026 (Autumn Durald Arkapaw - Sinners(
- Total: 4/1
Best Casting:
- Nominated: 2026 (Nina Gold - Hamnet/Jennifer Venditti - Marty Supreme/Cassandra Kulukundis- One Battle After Another/Francine Maisler - Sinners)
- Won: 2026 (Cassandra Kulukundis- One Battle After Another)
- Total: 4/1
Special Awards:
- Academy Honorary Awards: 25
- Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Awards: 11
- Irving G. Thalberg Memorial Award: 2
- Academy Juvenile Award: 6
Special Note: Every Juvenile Award was given to a girl. Of these, only Hayley Mills' was awarded for a specific film. The other 5 were more generic yearly awards, so Pollyanna will be included on this list but the other 5 awards will not have films represented on this list.
The following are the only years and categories where every nominee was a woman, with the winner in parenthesis.
Special Note: The Best Documentary Short Subjects were all for years where there were less than five nominees.
- 32nd: Best Costume Design, Color (Elizabeth Haffenden - Ben-Hur)
- 66th: Best Costume Design (Gabriella Pescucci - The Age of Innocence)
- 67th: Best Makeup and Hairstyling (Ve Neill and Yolanda Toussieng - Ed Wood)/Best Production Design (Carolyn Scott - The Madness of King George)
- 71st: Best Costume Design (Sandy Powell - Shakespeare in Love)/Best Makeup and Hairstyling (Jenny Shircore - Elizabeth)
- 72nd: Best Costume Design (Lindy Hemming - Topsy Turvy)
- 73rd: Best Makeup and Hairstyling (Gail Ryan - How the Grinch Stole Christmas)
- 74th: Best Costume Design (Catherine Martin - Moulin Rouge!)/Best Documentary Short (Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi and Shannon Dill - Thoth)
- 75th: Best Costume Design (Coleen Atwood - Chicago)/Best Makeup and Hairstyling (Beatrice De Alba - Frida)
- 76th: Best Costume Design (Ngila Dickson - The Lord of the Rings: Return of the King)/Best Documentary Short (Maryann DeLeo - Chernobyl Heart)
- 77th: Best Production Design (Francesca Lo Schiavo - The Aviator)
- 78th: Best Costume Design (Colleen Atwood - Memoirs of a Geisha)
- 79th: Best Documentary Short (Ruby Yang - The Blood of Yingzhou District)/Best Production Design (Pilar Revuelta - Pan's Labyrinth)
-82nd: Best Costume Design (Sandy Powell - The Young Victoria)
- 83rd: Best Costume Design (Colleen Atwood - Alice in Wonderland)
- 88th: Best Makeup and Hairstyling (Lesley Vanderwalt and Elka Wardega - Mad Max: Fury Road)
- 89th: Best Costume Design (Colleen Atwood - Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them)
- 90th: Best Animated Feature (Darta K Anderson - Coco)
- 91st: Best Costume Design (Ruth E. Carter - Black Panther)/Best Documentary Feature (Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi and Shannon Dill - Free Solo)/Best Makeup and Hairstyling (Kate Biscoe and Patricia DeHaney - Vice)
- 92nd: Best Documentary Feature (Julia Reichert - American Factory)
- 93rd: Best Documentary Feature (Pippa Ehrlich - My Octopus Teacher)/ Best Makeup and Hairstyling (Mia Neal and Jamika Wilson - Ma Rainey's Black Bottom)/Best Production Design (Jan Pascale - Mank)
- 94th: Best Makeup and Hairstyling (Linda Dowds and Stephanie Ingram - The Eyes of Tammy Faye)/Best Production Design (Patrice Vermette and Zsuzsanna Sipos - Dune)
- 95th: Best Costume Design (Ruth E. Carter - Black Panther: Wakanda Worever)/Best Production Design (Ernestine Hipper - All Quiet on the Western Front)
- 96th: Best Costume Design/Best Makeup and Hairstyling
- 97th: Best Makeup and Hairstyling
- 98th: Best Animated Feature/Best Costume Design
