Vanity Fair
The issue's portfolio focused on presenting "raw, intimate, and honest" portraits of the actresses, explained Vanity Fair's style director, Jessica Diehl. The photos, taken by Annie Leibovitz, were "dismissive of the shackles of airbrushing and Picasso'd Photoshop manipulations."
"As much as we wanted glamour on the cover, because the Hollywood cover is, to us, an occasion, what we thought was interesting is to see them, really, as the canvas that they are to all the various characters they've played over the years, and just be very true portraits of them," Diehl said.
Diverse in both age and race, the cover features Jane Fonda, Cate Blanchett, Viola Davis, Jennifer Lawrence, Charlotte Rampling, Rachel Weisz, Brie Larson, Lupita Nyong'o, Alicia Vikander, Gugu Mbatha-Raw, Saoirse Ronan, Helen Mirren, and Diane Keaton.
This year's cover is more diverse than last year's issue, which only featured two actors of color: David Oyelowo and Oscar Isaac.
Vanity Fair's covers have varied in diversity throughout the years. While 2014 featured a record six actors of color (out of 12 actors featured), some issues, such as 2010, failed to feature any.
Here's a look at some of the past covers of Vanity Fair's Hollywood Issue: