Why the Oscars are finally giving older women their due

Traditionally, younger actresses have been favoured by the Oscars – but as BBC research shows, that's changing. Is it a sign that female ageism in the film industry is on its way out?

When Michelle Yeoh collected her best actress Oscar for Everything Everywhere All at Once in 2023, aged 60, she declared, "Ladies, don't let anybody tell you [that] you are ever past your prime. Never give up."

That Yeoh felt the need to say that publicly reflects her position as one of only seven women who've been over the age of 60 when they've won the best actress trophy. Only one winner, Jessica Tandy, has been over 80; only one other, Katharine Hepburn, was over 70.  

The Academy Awards voters have traditionally favoured women in their 20s and 30s, with a clear discrepancy in winners' ages between the best actor and best actress category. Adrien Brody remains the only best actor winner under 30, while 32 actresses have won in their 20s.

But times have been, slowly but surely, changing. BBC research shows that the average age of best actress nominees has been consistently increasing decade by decade. So whereas the average age of a best actress nominee was 27 in the 1940s, it rose to 37 by the 1970s and 40 by the 2000s, while in the 2020s so far, it is 47. Alongside Yeoh, recent winners include Renée Zellweger (50), Frances McDormand (63) and Jessica Chastain (45), while recent nominees also include Annette Bening (65), Brazil's Fernanda Torres (59), and Demi Moore (62) – even if, as last year's favourite for the prize, the latter was beaten to it by 25-year-old Mikey Madison for Anora. 

That a best actress nominee was averagely aged 27 in the 1940s reflects an industry that prioritised youthful women. In her 2007 book The Star Machine, writer and film historian Professor Jeanine Basinger says of the industry: "It was tough for a woman to last… Glamorous women were a fragile product… the camera was a cruel observer, and it saw age… If a female star could last for a decade, she really paid off. If she could last for two decades, she was a phenomenal success. If she lasted longer than that, she was a miracle, and today we can call her a legend."

The stars of that era included Oscar winners such as Bette Davis, Ingrid Bergman and Vivien Leigh, who all won the best actress trophy in their 20s. (Perhaps the "miracle" Basinger talks about was Katharine Hepburn, who holds the record for most best actress trophies and won three of them over the age of 60.)

The factors creating the shift 

Dr Stacy L Smith, the founder of USC's Annenberg Inclusion Initiative, a global think tank studying issues of inequality in entertainment, tells the BBC that now, when it comes to "prestige" films – the kind that attract awards interest – a woman has a longer career span. 

"When we started this work in 2007, I would always joke about that you had to be named Judi [Dench] Maggie [Smith] or Meryl [Streep] to work as an older woman in Hollywood. And I just don't think that that's the case anymore," she says. "You have a greater range of roles available within films of this type and there's less bias or less focus on younger women carrying the story."

Also she points out that "these days the Academy is recognising films that typically make less money – they're more artsy, art-house driven content. And [within those] there's a real appreciation for the craft of an actor." 

Elizabeth Kaiden, the co-founder of The Writers Lab, an organisation supporting female screenwriters over the age of 40, tells the BBC that veterans actresses with decades of experience "are now having films built for them" – something that was rare until recently.

"It's been proved star actresses can come and have long........

© BBC