'We are acknowledging the year of the woman': Screen Actors Guild awards ceremony to feature only female presenters

Published: 21:07 GMT, 13 December 2017 | Updated: 14:24 GMT, 14 December 2017

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The 24th annual Screen Actors Guild Awards will be presented entirely by women.

The organizers of the SAGs - one of Hollywood's biggest award shows and usually a strong pre-Oscars indicator - made the announcement on Wednesday.

The tribute comes at a time when the entertainment industry has been roiled by a sexual misconduct scandal as well as the struggle for gender equality in front of and behind the camera.

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Girls only! The Screen Actors Guild Awards will be presented entirely by women (Niecy Nash (L) and Olivia Munn (R)announcing the nominations on Wednesday in Los Angeles)

Women will present all 13 of the SAG awards at the January 21 dinner in Los Angeles honoring the best of film and television, in a first for the organization, which represents some 160,000 actors.

'We are acknowledging the year of the woman,' Kathy Connell, the executive producer of the ceremony, told Reuters.

The ceremony will also be hosted by a woman, The Good Place actress Kristen Bell - the first time the show has ever been hosted.

'Our women are some of the most recognizable, most famous women in the world and they don't have economic equality.

'They don't have creative equality, and as we have learned, they don't have safety either,' Connell said.

United: Executive producer of the ceremony Kathy Connell (L) made the announcement on Wednesday (pictured with (L-R) SAG Awards Committee member Elizabeth McLaughlin SAG-AFTRA President Gabrielle Carteris, and SAG Awards Committee Chair JoBeth Williams)

First: The ceremony will also be hosted by a woman, The Good Place actress Kristen Bell - the first time the show has ever been hosted (pictured earlier this month)

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'If these famous women don't have it, then what does it say about the rest of the country?'

The ceremony details were disclosed the same day that SAG announced the nominations for the 2018 awards.

Actresses Olivia Munn and Niecy Nash made the announcement from the Pacific Design Center in West Hollywood.

Accusations of sexual misconduct against powerful men in entertainment, industry and politics, including U.S. President Donald Trump - who has denied the allegations - have forced multiple Americans to step down or be fired from their jobs in the past three months.

Connell said the decision also reflected the impact of the January 2017 women's marches that brought millions into the streets worldwide.

The big reveal: Actresses Olivia Munn and Niecy Nash made the announcement from the Pacific Design Center in West Hollywood early on Wednesday morning

For all of the accomplishments of women in Hollywood, only one - Kathryn Bigelow - has ever won an Oscar for best director.

And women made up only 17 percent of all directors, writers, producers, executive producers, editors and cinematographers working on the top 250 biggest-grossing movies in 2016, according to a study by the San Diego-based Center for the Study of Women in Television and Film.

SAGs nominations announced on Wednesday for movie and television performances featured many female-centric stories, including mother-daughter film Lady Bird, ice-skating movie I, Tonya, TV series Big Little Lies and wrestling drama Glow.

'We can only acknowledge the TV shows and the films that are offered. We don't create them,' Connell said.

'There were quite a number of women-focused projects this year and I'm happy to say our membership decided to acknowledge many of them.'

Acknowledged: SAGs nominations announced for movie and television performances featured many female-centric stories, including Lady Bird, I, Tonya, Big Little Lies and Glow