Why is the Oscars finally giving older women their due?

The latest Annenberg study also found that among the top 100 Hollywood films last year, only four women 45 or older appeared in the lead or starring role, and one of them was an animated voice character: Ginnifer Goodwin in Zootopia 2. And none of them were women of color. By contrast, there were 31 men in the same age who were eligible to be leads or co-stars in these films, including actors such as Anthony Mackie, Benedict Cumberbatch, Benicio del Toro, Brad Pitt, Dwayne Johnson, Leonardo DiCaprio, Pedro Pascal, and Tom Cruise.

“You can’t tell me that during this lifetime on screen, there are no qualified actresses who can do this [protagonist] “It’s actually discriminatory. And I guarantee you there’s also a limited group of women who get those opportunities to play those roles on screen,” Smith tells the BBC, adding of the number of older actresses who might be considered capable of carrying a big-budget commercial film, rather than a more “prestigious” artistic project.

Older female screenwriters, according to Kayden and The Writers Lab co-founder Nitza Wellon, are still underrepresented in popular filmmaking. In data provided to the BBC, their study found that of the 511 American feature films released through 2025, only 12% were written by women over the age of 40 (and just 20% were written by women overall).

“The distance between the Oscars and reality is very far,” says Waylon. “I don’t think we can use the Oscars as a reliable source for what’s really going on in the world. The Oscars are a spectacle. They’re considered entertainment, not news. I’m excited that Demi Moore was 62 when she was nominated for The Substance, but she’s also a woman who doesn’t look her age. Hollywood is a bubble. This is not normal.”

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