“If I may be so honored,” said Frances McDormand in her acceptance speech for Best Actress at last Sunday’s Oscars ceremony, “to have all the female nominees in every category stand with me tonight,” and they did—actors, directors, writers. But how many standing were composers? Although there were three women nominated for the original song award, when it came to the award for original score, the shortlist comprised only men. It’s not a huge surprise given the numbers: according to the 2017 report “Inequality in 900 Popular Films,” which looked at diversity in film over a 10 year period, only 1.7 percent of composers were women—that is to say, two. We’ve written plenty about inequality in the classical music industry, and film is no different. In the spirit of McDormand’s show of female talent, here is a subjective, personal list of some of the best film scores by women.
A Women Film Composers Playlist
Mocking, Horror-inducing, Painful Music
