Natalie Portman's Oscars Cape, Embroidered with Snubbed Female Directors, Is a Dig to the Academy

After famously drawing attention to the all-male line-up of best director nominees at the 2018 Golden Globes, Natalie Portman is standing up for women once again at the  2020 Oscars (and this time, she’s using fashion to do it).

The 38-year-old actress and the Academy Awards presenter walked the red carpet wearing a strapless black Dior gown, featuring a gold mesh overlay and a braided gold belt with a black floor-length cape and small hoop earrings.

The gold embellishments were stunning from afar, but up close, shots revealed one detail that took Portman’s look to the next level — the actress had the names of the female directors, whose critically acclaimed works were not recognized by the Academy, embroidered down the left hemline of her black cape.

In a video posted to Twitter by LA Times reporter Amy Kaufman, the Black Swan star showed off her detail-oriented ensemble and explained the meaning behind it.

“I wanted to recognize the women who were not recognized for their incredible work this year in my subtle way,” she told Kaufman.

Natalie Portman embroidered her Dior cape with all of the female directors who weren't nominated for #Oscars. Check out her explanation here. pic.twitter.com/kyyo2wVMZf

— Amy Kaufman (@AmyKinLA) February 10, 2020

https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js

According to an insider, the names inscribed on Portman’s red carpet design include Greta Gerwig (who is not nominated for her adaptation of the classic Little Women).

Last month, Issa Rae also called out the Academy when she announced the Oscar nominees with John Cho, saying, “Congratulations to those men.”

This year’s nominees for the best director award are majority white and all-male — including Bong Joon-ho for Parasite, Sam Mendes for 1917, Martin Scorsese for The Irishman, Quentin Tarantino for Once Upon a Time … in Hollywood and Todd Phillips for Joker.

RELATED: Jennifer Lopez, Beyoncé and Frozen 2 Snubbed by 2020 Oscars — and More Shockers

Greta Gerwig’s Little Women picked up six nods, but Gerwig failed to land a directing nomination, even though her film was nominated for Best Picture and Best Adapted Screenplay. Additionally, Lulu Wang was not nominated for her direction of The Farewell, despite receiving critical acclaim throughout the 2020 awards season. Lorene Scafaria was also snubbed for Hustlers, as well as Melina Matsoukas for Queen & Slim and Marielle Heller for A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood.

Had the women been nominated for the category, they would have joined the sole five female nominees in the Oscars‘ 92-year history.

In 2010, Kathryn Bigelow became the first female to win the best director award for her film, The Hurt Locker.

In 2018, Portman made headlines when she called out the Golden Globes for their exclusion of female nominees in the best directors category while presenting the award alongside Ron Howard.

RELATED: Oscars 2020: Joker Leads Nominations with 11, Three Other Films Tie with 10

“And here are all the male nominees,” she said before introducing the five men up for the award at the time.

Guillermo Del Toro took home the award for Shape of Water, beating out Martin McDonagh (Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri), Christopher Nolan (Dunkirk), Ridley Scott (All the Money in the World) and Steven Spielberg (The Post).

Following the announcement of the 2018 Golden Globe nominations in December, social media was quick to point out the lack of female representation in the category. Celebrated female directors Greta Gerwig, Patty Jenkins and Dee Rees were all left out.